Picnic has everything but prizes

Last year, when organizers of the annual Picnic for the Disabled needed money, you responded by donating $13,000.

This week, the Observer reported that organizers had enough money to throw the 30th annual picnic on Sept. 12, but needed people to help with the event. Two hundred volunteers stepped up in two days.

“The phone started ringing at 7:30 in the morning Tuesday and didn't stop,” said Randy Cornell, treasurer of Physically Disabled Adults, the picnic's organizer. “We had high school students call, older folks – you name it, we were just bombarded.”

A high school football coach even called to say he planned to bring his players to volunteer, he said.

The Sept. 12 picnic, noon to 4 p.m. at the Marion Diehl Center, 2219 Tyvola Road, is open to anyone with disabilities. Up to 500 disabled people are expected at the event that was founded in 1979 by a police officer and his wife.

The volunteers will run bingo games, hand out door prizes, cook and park cars.

Speaking of door prizes: The organizers need more.

They're looking for stereos and TVs that can be used in group homes. Or telephones, clock radios, CD players that the disabled people can use in their rooms. “The hardest thing is to get prizes donated,” Cornell said.

If you can donate a door prize call Cornell at 704-573-2914, or Barry Dodd at 704-536-9497.

Photo sessions to help KinderMourn

Scott Clinton sure knows how to make an entrance.

Clinton has run a photography studio and business in New York. Yet, after 11 years, being a Nebraska boy with small-town inclinations, he decided he wanted to pull up stakes and find a saner life in Charlotte.

This week, he was still in the process of moving (he probably won't be fully moved until year's end), but he wanted to start becoming a part of the city where he hopes to build a new life.

Using the concept of cause marketing, Clinton has linked up with KinderMourn, the uniquely Charlotte nonprofit that helps family navigate through the grief of losing a loved one, and he's holding portrait sessions this Saturday to raise money for the organization.

"Anyone can come down: families, or individuals -- if you want your dog photographed, I don't care," said Clinton, from his studio in New York, where he's still packing his life into boxes. "After 11 years in New York, I decided that enough was enough. I have friends in Charlotte and had spent time here.

"I liked the city, and the way people take the time to develop relationships."

Clinton has rented space at Blackbox Studios, 3120 Latrobe Dr., suite 250 (that's in the Arnold Palmer Center off North Wendover Road). For a minimum donation of $40 -- he's suggesting you donate $100 -- you'll get a 5 to 10-minute portrait session and after a couple weeks, an 8-by-10 glossy print.

All the money raised from the sessions will go to KinderMourn. More prints will be available to buy.

The shoot will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., first come, first serve -- no reservations. He's getting help from Little Ones Magazine and Preslar Studio.

He chose KinderMourn because of its mission: Helping people wade through a mire of grief and rebuild their lives after they've lost someone they love.

"They do good work," Clinton said. "I'm proud to be connected with them through this effort."

In New York, Clinton has run Scott Clinton Photography, photographing mainly corporations. He recently spun off a business, Simulacra Photography, which focuses on portraits of babies, children, teenagers, adults and families.

He's moving both businesses to Charlotte.

"Moving to a new community, I felt it was important to do some good for the community, but also reach as many people as possible and establish what I do," he said. "I'm a bit of a small-town guy. Charlotte's not a small town, but it has similar values. It feels like a good fit."

For Clinton and Kindermourn.

Social media "webinar" set for Wednesday

Listen up, Charlotte-region nonprofits: If you missed last month's social networking seminar hosted by NPower, the national organization that helps you guys bone up on the latest technology, despair no longer.


NPower's Charlotte affiliate is putting on a "webinar" Wednesday for any nonprofits interested in learning more or asking questions they weren't able to ask in August.


The webinar starts at 11:30 a.m. and runs an hour. Besides whatever questions you may have, the discussion will center on: Practical user information for Facebook; how to generate a "buzz" to keep people coming back; suggestions for making your Facebook page as user-friendly as possible; and cause versus page, and how to navigate and choose between the two.


Leading the discussion will be three of the seminar presenters: Adam Morgan of Microsoft; Brandon Uttley, a social media strategist at Wray Ward in Charlotte; and Winn Maddrey, executive vice president of Topics Education.


More than 140 people, representing 80 charities, attended the August seminar.


"We had to turn people away just because of the amount of interest," said NPower Charlotte spokeswoman Lindsay Jones. "So for those folks who couldn't participate or who did, but still have questions about setting up Facebook pages, or Twitter accounts, we decided the webinar was a good way to reach a lot of people."


NPower is in the business of helping charities and nonprofits use technology to more effectively achieve goals, raise awareness and generate donations.


The seminar and Wednesday's webinar is part of NPower's Project Ignite campaign, a three-year program designed to provide information technology services to nonprofits. The project consists of forums, community group collaborations and financial help for charities to enhance their IT.

The Charlotte affiliate was founded in 2002 and has established itself as a key facilitator of technology strategy and solutions development for nonprofits. It has served more than 60 charities and delivered more than 120 technology projects.

All nonprofits are invited to sign up for the webinar here. For details of what was discussed at the August seminar and Wednesday's webinar click here.