</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Brian,
If I was you, I would contact one of the local newspapers, but don't just call the paper, figure out who the most influential "local" or "community" reporter is for your area. Contact that reporter directly. Invite him/her to some of your meetings, suggest that the paper may want to run a "series" of once a week progress reports, with photos of what is going on. The newspaper can be a great source for keeping this in the eye of the public to help keep the energy level up, as well as keeping donations coming in for the family trust. They can run it as a local "EXTREME HOME MAKOVER" type of articles with local people involved in the entire process.
You might also want to work with the various local churches, many of them have tradesmen who volunteer time and they may want to get involved.
JMHO . . . and since you are taking care of the dentist bills, candy will be on its way too.
BTW, I must be reading Chris's post differently than others, but I didn't see him as knocking this effort in any way. In fact I agree with him about all the solicitations that come in, and how so many LARGE charities are actually giving a small % of the donations to the people who actually need it. I think Chris was making a "general statement" about the big charities and was actually citing evidence that your efforts are positive. I too support local charities and ignore many of the large ones. In this case, I consider all the TBN members to be local, even if they are in a different state . . . that is why I am willing to chip in for this effort, but that is just me. )</font>
Bob,
The local newspaper is already involved and doing just as you said.
We have a couple "coordinators" to do things on different fronts.
We have a GC for the actual building of the house as well as a person from the Church that's covering items for the community and the trust fund for the kids.
I don't have all the details yet (the next meeting is next Wednesday) but a lot of the materials and associated tradesmen are falling into place. Mrs. Zoom is calling around today to find roofing and insulation. She got in contact with a roofer who was a great help and will help her get this initiative known to the regional roofers association and said they do these types of projects.
I just wanted to mention to Chris and others that I did not post this thread with intent of soliciting donations but just to say that we're all pulling together for a good cause. My apologies Chris if I took your post the wrong way as I too also prefer local initiatives but will expand for catastrophes or other personal interests (like the DVD's for our soldiers in Iraq).
Brian
