On June 20, 2014 we celebrated our Graduation from Leadership Hollywood Class XXXVIII at the Westin Diplomat on Hollywood Beach. Leadership Hollywood was a terrific program that I would highly recommend to anyone that lives or works in Hollywood. One of the highlights for me was the community service project. At one of first meetings last year, the class was divided into four groups and each group was tasked with implementing their assigned project.
Our group was tasked with raising funds for the Joseph Meyerhoff Senior Center in Hollywood. The Meyerhoff Center offers activities and social services to seniors of all ages and abilities including those with Alzheimer’s disease. Last year over 2,000 seniors benefited from Meyerhoff’s programs. For many seniors, Meyerhoff is a place to socialize, rejuvenate, learn and have a nutritious meal. Over $100,000 in Federal funding and the meal program have been cut in the past two years. This center needs community support and donations from individual donors, corporations, and foundations as government funds dwindle.
We used the concept of a restaurant and bar hop and created the Hollywood Beachtown Hop to raise funds for the Meyerhoff Center. We had trolleys that ran along the route of ten participating business in downtown Hollywood and Hollywood Beach on the night of the event. The event was a huge success with over 350 tickets sold. We were able to raise over $8,000 for the Meyerhoff Center from ticket sales and corporate sponsorships.
On Graduation night, each of the four groups had to prepare a live presentation about their community service project to be judged by a panel of former Leadership Hollywood graduates. Our team continued our hard work and prepared a live presentation that included a power point presentation, speaking parts from each member of the group, a music video with photos from the night of the event, and a presentation of the charity check to officials from the Meyerhoff Center. We were all very excited when our group was recognized as the top project.
Photos from Graduation night courtesy of Courtney Ortiz Photography can be viewed at http://courtneyortizphotography.zenfolio.com/p325972680
