**Shameless Plug!***

I just realized that it's been awhile since I last posted and I can't really blame it on anything other than my life has been quiet for awhile now.  Peacefully, wonderfully quiet.  Ahhhh...

Things are still going well with my internship with Career Investments.  In fact, I will add a shameless plug to this little blog.  This Wednesday, July 13th we are hosting a free seminar for the parents of recent college graduates that may be struggling with getting their career started upon graduation.  Often parents don't know how to help their kids without causing WW3 in their house (assuming they are again living together). Whether the parents and kids are again co-habitating or not, the conversation often comes out as Parent: "What are you doing to get a job?"  Kid: "Geeze, I'm working on it.  Get off my back!"  The "kids" are at that stage where they are adults but are likely still relying on their parents for financial and perhaps even emotional help and the parents would like to assist in the process in some way but it often comes off as nagging.  Our seminar is centered around giving parents tips and tools to help with their side of the communication and ways to assist their grads in the search with the hopes of minimizing the feeling of "nagging" by the grad and instead empowering them in their search for independence.  If you know someone who may be interested in the seminar, send them to: Career Investments Parent Session

In personal news, I have started volunteering for the Irvington Development Organization to help with fundraising efforts for the improvement of my neighborhood.  They have been "trying" to raise the remaining $50,000 of a $300,000 campaign for the last 5 years.  There is a sign outside of our library with a tick mark counting down to the final amount and it's been so close for so long it was driving me crazy! (The mark is now at the very last tic-mark)

So I decided I needed to do something about it and I contacted the organization.  Come to find out that the fund-raising  committee has been all but defunct for the last 5 years and construction is slated to begin in the next few months so now is the crucial time.  I am now one of 3 fundraisers for the newly founded fundraising committee.  None of us has a background in this but we are doing our best and searching for grants, donors, etc.  If anyone has been involved in community fundraisers and has any advice for me, please pass it along.  I feel like $50,000 is nothing and broken down into small pieces it should totally be manageable so here goes!  It looks like I prefer to volunteer to throw myself into bureaucratic situations but professionally I find myself staying as far away from those situations as possible.  Hey, I have no problem asking people for money for something I believe in and I completely believe in helping my neighborhood develop into something greater.  Donate to the Irvington Streetscape Project here.