Charity (Win Prizes)

Buy a raffle ticket - win great prizes - today!

I love Facebook and the fact that I’ve been able to connect with people I’ve known all my life to people at different stages of my entire life. Most of you know that my life has taken some ups and downs, and that a true career wasn’t always a given.

In early 2009, I came to Kaye/Bassman and I’ve been able to find my niche in Healthcare IT recruiting. It’s been meaningful and rewarding for me personally, and given me something to put more energy and time into than I ever thought possible

One of the things that makes working here so special are the number of people that participate in our charitable functions – it’s somewhere over 80%. In terms of our impact, we are significant for a company of our size. As an example, last year the largest contributor in the Dallas area for Muscular Dystrophy was Albertson’s (revenue $3B). The Kaye/Bassman Foundation was second.

That’s a long intro for me to say that I need you to participate in this year’s charity event by purchasing a $30 raffle ticket. If you can do more, thank you.

I’d like to get 100% participation from everyone I know and make an impact. There are many raffle items with the marquee one being a 7 night stay at the Grand Mayan Resort in Cabo San Lucas. 100% of this money goes to charity – the raffle items were all donated, and all costs of running this was covered by our sponsors or by Kaye/Bassman. 100% of each raffle tickets sold go to these charities. Actually, 100% of all the items - tickets to tonight's event, raffle tickets, sponsorships, etc - go to the charities. How often do you see THAT happen?

You can do this online – please click on this link and get started. It will take you 3 minutes: Cool Kids Click Here: http://www.kbiccharities.com/component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.b... (or go to www.kbiccharities.com and browse to the page). You do NOT have to be present to win!

I know you guys to be generous and loving people. This is important to me. Please do what you can.

** For any purchase or donation you make today, I will match your cost dollar for dollar. If you buy $500 of raffle tickets, I will donate an additional $500 myself. Please email me if you buy/donate so I can shoot an email to our accounting and let them know to deduct another donation from my paycheck.

Best Regards,

Taiter

OPTIONS:

* Purchase raffle tickets (1 or more - win valuable prizes!)

* Purchase tickets to the event tonight (a few tickets remain)

PS: I’m an over explainer, but also conscious of writing emails that are too long, so I shortened things above to keep the interest of other ADD people like me. But, here’s the longer explanation of what we’re doing and why, plus why I’m asking you to participate if you want the longer explanation:

The Kaye/Bassman Foundation supports 2 charities: MDA and CityHouse. CityHouse is a local outreach – local to DFW – that helps children that are in transition in their lives mostly coming from Child Protective Services (CPS). There are broken families, abused kids, special needs and much more and when I toured the facility, I was blown away by how much thought and care went into helping these children. Quick facts: most certified places for children coming from CPS are only certified/licensed for one age group, so if you have a brother and a sister that cross that line of age delineation, one child is sent to one place and the other to another. So, coming out of a crisis situation, siblings are usually torn from each other as well. In addition, it’s rare to find a place certified for Special Needs. CityHouse was started in the 80’s in Plano when two Plano school teachers saw kids coming to school with all their belongings in trash bags because they had nowhere to live and has grown into many programs. My Friend’s House is a new addition built from the ground up to shelter children from newborn to 17 years old and special needs. It’s an incredible place they built and one of the very, very few centers that are certified to handle all age groups and special needs children. I could type on and on about My Friend’s House, actually, because I got to tour it – it was built from scratch with this purpose in mind, so there are tons of carefully thought out details all geared towards kids. Children that are victims of situations caused by us – adults. It’s amazing, and grabs my heart – this group does amazing work with children that I absolutely believe need it. It’s not their fault and someone has to look out for the innocent, and that’s what CityHouse does.

In addition, the other day I had a paradigm shift in our weekly corporate meeting. The topic of the meeting was the MDA and our support of it through our charity work. We saw a video of a local DFW child first – and his story touched me already because he went from appearing “normal” to the confines of a wheelchair, yet he joined the marching band – and actually is on the field, not shoved to the sidelines. During an interview, one line stood out to me that he said to the reporter: “I chose to do what I am doing”. Getting Muscular Dystrophy wasn’t his choice and it wasn’t his parents’ choice. But he didn’t complain about his luck in life – he chose to do something for his life. It floored me. I complain if my Starbucks takes too long or if my knee bothers me. He has every excuse in the world and chooses to do what he wants despite it. No one would’ve ever been inspired by his marching band participation if he had let MD be his excuse to not get on the field. I’m touched because I saw a kid that I might’ve pitied before, but I look up to now – he’s a better person than I am.

And then we had a special guest come speak to us who used to work at Kaye/Bassman as a recruiter. He described his work here and how life was going when one day his phone rang and it was his wife who told him their son had just been diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. He further described how he really didn’t think that it was too big of a deal in that moment but a coworker insisted he go home to be with his family, and as he started to truly research M.D. he found some shocking statistics. His son’s diagnosis meant almost certainly that he’d be in a wheelchair before adulthood, and likely wouldn’t live past the age of 25. And as that progression of the disease happened, the child’s parents would watch it all unfold without being able to stop it.

Guys, I know that we all really are living a temporary life in so many ways – none of us have 200 years to live. And it’s probably debatable on whether it’s better or worse to have the knowledge of your upcoming life than the suddenness of a tragic accident. There are lots of ways I debate these things internally – but either way, I was struck by the humanity of the people around experiencing things I’ll never experience, and I think we can do something about it. Yes, maybe just a little bit, but still – SOMETHING. That’s what motivated me to write you all.

I don’t win anything by doing this. There’s no contest to see who gets the most raffle tickets sold, there’s no monetary goal each of us has to reach. I’m writing because I care about these causes and it’s important to me. And, I’m sure you are already involved somewhere in charity as well – I’m asking you to just buy one raffle ticket. If you have the means, buy a 5 pack. Forward my email to your friends, get your club, your church group, your poker buddies, your family – whoever – to sponsor a table or your company to be one of the premier sponsors (they come with raffle tickets too). These raffle items were all donated and any overhead cost was covered by a sponsor or by KBIC, so 100% of the raffle ticket money you spend will go to charity.

Click on this link to see the options from buying 1 raffle ticket, to becoming a Torch Sponsor. Thank you for your participation and for reading my lengthy writing.

www.kbiccharities.com

-Tait

Tonight's schedule for those that want to attend:

We hope you are excited to join us this Friday for our "Light Up a Life" Celebration at candleroom! Below are the answers to some popular questions; please let me know if you need any additional information! Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you Friday.

TIME AND PLACE: Our doors open at 8pm! The candleroom is located at 5039 Willis Avenue, Dallas, 75206. For more information, visit www.candleroomdallas.com.

PARKING: We have arranged for complimentary Valet Parking; please include gratuity as you see appropriate.

DETAILS: From 8pm until 9pm, there will be a complimentary open bar with Ketel One cocktails and light hors d'oeuvres; after 9pm we will move to cash bar. Our Raffle will take place at 10pm, but remember that you need not be present to win.

WHAT TO WEAR: Think "club-wear" that's hip and trendy (but

age-appropriate:-)). Gentleman: Nice jeans and a dress shirt, or dress shirt and slacks are perfectly acceptable. Ladies: Jeans and heels with a fun top, or a fun dress are both great options.

ADDITIONAL RAFFLE TICKETS: Although you can purchase raffle tickets up until 9:30pm at the event on Friday, the best option is to go now to www.kbiccharities.com. Remember that there are some fabulous prizes - and some great door prizes as well. Every dollar donated is 100% tax deductible and 100% of the proceeds go to support our charities!

SEATING: To all of our Torch, Illuminant, Spotlight and Firecracker

Sponsors: THANK YOU. When you arrive at the candleroom, please see one of our door hosts who will escort you to your table.

HAVE FUN: 'My Private Driver' is extending special pricing to attendees of the "Light Up a Life" Celebration. Special pricing of $28/hour for Private Chauffeurs for your vehicle, or Town Cars/SUV's/Limousines starting at $55/hour. Contact Sean McGinty, CEO of My Private Driver, at 972-999-6620 to reserve your transportation.