Hot Wings for Charity
I have been in Des Moines this week staying with my 12 year old niece while my sister was out of town for work. As Annie and I cruised various malls looking for a new shirt for the first day of school – she kept pointing out examples of cause marketing and business giving as we wandered around asking, “have you written a blog post about this?” I guess I am having an influence…
Today in the Des Moines Register’s Datebook section, there was an announcement about the “Wing Ding” to be held Saturday, August 29th at El Bait Shop in Des Moines. Eight area restaurants have teamed up for this event. For $20, you can get nine wings of your choice, a beer or soda, and a commemorative koozie. Special events are scheduled all day long to draw people in to participate in the event. Proceeds benefit VSA Arts of Iowa, a charity that provides artistic opportunities for people with disabilities.
I (of course) went straight to the El Bait Shop website – since I am not from here, I had no idea what it was. I was greeted by a voice saying, “Hey, man. Circle your calendar and get your butts down here to EL Bait Shop on Saturday for a Wing Ding…” which gave me a start. And it is a great idea – underneath the overview of the bar on the home page, they put an avatar who starts speaking as soon as you land on the page to tell about the upcoming Wing Ding event. To the left of the avatar, they put the logo for the Wing Ding event which once clicked takes you to Paypal to buy tickets online. Also, there was an icon to click through to the pdf flyer with all three logos (event, business, and nonprofit) and the description and details of the event. Really great promotion of the event by the business!
Going to the VSA Arts of Iowa website, they have the Wing Ding event featured on their home page — so great work doing promotion by both organizations.
Still a little cognitive dissonance in my head about El Bait Shop supporting the arts – but it is clearly a great and worthy cause and they have done a nice job with it.
About VSA Arts of Iowa
VSA Arts was founded in 1974 by Jean Kennedy Smith as an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The purpose of VSA Arts is to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and their communities by providing artistic opportunity. To accomplish this mission, VSA Arts operates affiliates nationwide and in over 60 countries. For more information on VSA Arts of Iowa visit http://www.vsaartsofiowa.org or call 515-281-5839.
Tags: business giving, Des Moines, El Bait SHop, restaurants, VSA Arts of Iowa, wing ding
August 27th, 2009 at 11:36 am
It’s great to see people helping neighbors in need. There are 18 local heroes profiled on the CITGO Fueling Good Facebook page and you can help one win a $250 gift card. Go to http://www.facebook.com/CITGOFuelingGood#/album.php?aid=146207&id=108494515990&ref=mf, become a fan of the CITGO Fueling Good group and then vote for your favorite story by clicking the picture and hitting “like.” Fueling Good is rewarding other heroes all year long with a year’s supply of gas, so check out the Facebook page and entry your story of community support for a chance to win.