Two weeks from tonight (November 19, 2010) I’ll be in seat 1 of Row 12 in section GG in Carver Hawkeye Arena as the Hawkeyes kick of the 2010/2011 wrestling season. For the first time in four years Brent Metcalf will not be in the lineup for the home opener.
Brent will be wrestling that night 935 miles from his former teammates at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. He’ll be joining other American freestyle stars Angel Escobedo, Shawn Bunch, Trent and Travis Paulson, Jake Herbert, J D Bergman and Tervel Dlagnev in a dual meet against a team from Russia.
Last year I was lucky enough to attend a similar event in Mount Vernon, Iowa on the Cornell College campus. The gym was packed and the crowd was boisterous. It was heartening to see so many young wrestlers there. I sat just a few feet away from the North Cedar kids club and, boy, did they seem to be enjoying the action.
It may seem strange, but kids in Iowa have far more opportunities to wrestle and attend wrestling events than kids in New York City. Al Bevilacqua, Michael Novogratz and the rest of the folks at Beat the Streets are working to change that. They firmly believe that the surest path for the growth of wrestling is to make it an urban sport. It’s hard to argue with their logic.
Al wants to take as many Beat the Streets kids as possible to the USA vs Russia freestyle dual. Why shouldn’t they have the same opportunity as youngsters from Stanwood, Lisbon, Solon and Mount Vernon? To help Al meet his goal, we’ve made this meet a Tickets for Kids event.
Thanks to the kindness of Eric Betterman of theopenmat.com Tickets for Kids now has a website and is capable of receiving online donations. Here is the link to the USA vs Russia page. If you have any questions email me at jim@dmsolutions4u.com. If you are a traditionalist like me and prefer to send a check, please make it to Tickets for Kids and mail it to:
Tickets for Kids
c/o Jim Brown
130 24th St NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402-4936.
There’s no time to waste so please act today.
Have a look here at some of the kids you’ll be helping.
Showing posts with label Beat the Streets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beat the Streets. Show all posts
Friday, November 5, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
The battle for your wrestling dollar.
“Brother, can you spare a dime?” That iconic song from the Great Depression might just be the theme for American wrestling in the 21st century.
I’ve earned my living in the direct marketing business for about 30 years. For the last 20 I’ve owned my own consulting business. I’ve helped companies sell you magazines, pizza, jewelry and cell phones. I’ve also gotten you to donate to several worthwhile non-profit organizations.
Fund raising is a tough business. You have to battle for every dollar and – frankly - most wrestling organizations are pretty wimpy at it. Over the years I’ve contributed to individual Olympic wrestlers, national organizations and schools trying to save their programs. The associations I’ve built through this blog have also put me on a number of wrestling-related solicitation lists. Folks – you’ve got to work harder – get tougher.
Rule one is “keep asking”. It’s a fact that the top 15 – 20% of your past donors will donate 80% of the money to a new or follow-up campaign. Roughly 15% will come from the rest of the past donors and 5% or less will come from new donors. BUT – those past donors won’t give anything IF YOU DON’T ASK. Of the organizations that I’ve supported, only Cal State Fullerton and Save Oregon Wrestling have ever asked me directly for a second donation. Come on – ask me again. I know from years of research that if you get a second donation from me, I am twice as likely to donate a third time.
Speak directly to me, tell me a good story and then “make the ask”. People don’t give to causes or organizations. One person gives to another person. Last week I received an attempt to get me to attend a fund raiser for a local wrestling club. I cringed. There was no letter – just a reservation form. They gave me no reason to attend. It was a lot like going to the middle of the mat, getting into your stance and then hoping that your opponent falls to his back.
Use all of your weapons. How successful are wrestlers who can only execute an outside single to get a takedown? Take a guess why charities continue to tick you off by calling you at home. BECAUSE IT WORKS! Telephone calls have a higher return on investment than any other fund raising method. In general, wrestling relies far too much on the internet to raise money. Yes – it’s cheap and should be a part of your arsenal – but don’t use it exclusively.
What does the Republican National Committee have in common with the Democratic National Committee? The NRA with the World Wildlife Fund? And those four with US Olympic Committee? All use direct mail as a primary fund raising medium. Get your story down on paper and tell it to me just as if we’re sitting across from each other having coffee. Motivate me to give.
Be proactive. Yes - emergency needs will draw your best response, but, you must have a regular plan that meets your needs. Don’t wait until the elimination announcement comes before you try to raise the money to save the program. If you’re a coach, wrestler, alumnus or fan of a particular college team – just assume that your team is on the chopping block and start raising the money now. Start a campaign to endow a scholarship or the head coach’s salary. Buy the team a van or new mats. Show the administration that important people (donors) care about wrestling and you’ll reduce your chances of being dropped.
It isn’t all bad. Beat the Streets has come up with two disparate, but powerful, concepts to market their annual fund raising gala. First, they are holding it on the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid and honoring wrestlers who have served our country. Then they are holding the “Battle on the Intrepid” – a series of “undercard” matches featuring young Beat the Streets athletes and some of America’s top freestyle and Greco Roman wrestlers – followed by the “Main Event”.
Take a guess – what two athletes would most American fans want to see face each other? Bingo! Brent Metcalf and Darrion Caldwell will do battle as the highlight of the evening. It’s a stroke of genius by the organizers and a credit to these two young men that they are willing to participate. Here’s a link to make your reservation. If you can’t be there you can still make a donation at the site.
I’ve earned my living in the direct marketing business for about 30 years. For the last 20 I’ve owned my own consulting business. I’ve helped companies sell you magazines, pizza, jewelry and cell phones. I’ve also gotten you to donate to several worthwhile non-profit organizations.
Fund raising is a tough business. You have to battle for every dollar and – frankly - most wrestling organizations are pretty wimpy at it. Over the years I’ve contributed to individual Olympic wrestlers, national organizations and schools trying to save their programs. The associations I’ve built through this blog have also put me on a number of wrestling-related solicitation lists. Folks – you’ve got to work harder – get tougher.
Rule one is “keep asking”. It’s a fact that the top 15 – 20% of your past donors will donate 80% of the money to a new or follow-up campaign. Roughly 15% will come from the rest of the past donors and 5% or less will come from new donors. BUT – those past donors won’t give anything IF YOU DON’T ASK. Of the organizations that I’ve supported, only Cal State Fullerton and Save Oregon Wrestling have ever asked me directly for a second donation. Come on – ask me again. I know from years of research that if you get a second donation from me, I am twice as likely to donate a third time.
Speak directly to me, tell me a good story and then “make the ask”. People don’t give to causes or organizations. One person gives to another person. Last week I received an attempt to get me to attend a fund raiser for a local wrestling club. I cringed. There was no letter – just a reservation form. They gave me no reason to attend. It was a lot like going to the middle of the mat, getting into your stance and then hoping that your opponent falls to his back.
Use all of your weapons. How successful are wrestlers who can only execute an outside single to get a takedown? Take a guess why charities continue to tick you off by calling you at home. BECAUSE IT WORKS! Telephone calls have a higher return on investment than any other fund raising method. In general, wrestling relies far too much on the internet to raise money. Yes – it’s cheap and should be a part of your arsenal – but don’t use it exclusively.
What does the Republican National Committee have in common with the Democratic National Committee? The NRA with the World Wildlife Fund? And those four with US Olympic Committee? All use direct mail as a primary fund raising medium. Get your story down on paper and tell it to me just as if we’re sitting across from each other having coffee. Motivate me to give.
Be proactive. Yes - emergency needs will draw your best response, but, you must have a regular plan that meets your needs. Don’t wait until the elimination announcement comes before you try to raise the money to save the program. If you’re a coach, wrestler, alumnus or fan of a particular college team – just assume that your team is on the chopping block and start raising the money now. Start a campaign to endow a scholarship or the head coach’s salary. Buy the team a van or new mats. Show the administration that important people (donors) care about wrestling and you’ll reduce your chances of being dropped.
It isn’t all bad. Beat the Streets has come up with two disparate, but powerful, concepts to market their annual fund raising gala. First, they are holding it on the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid and honoring wrestlers who have served our country. Then they are holding the “Battle on the Intrepid” – a series of “undercard” matches featuring young Beat the Streets athletes and some of America’s top freestyle and Greco Roman wrestlers – followed by the “Main Event”.
Take a guess – what two athletes would most American fans want to see face each other? Bingo! Brent Metcalf and Darrion Caldwell will do battle as the highlight of the evening. It’s a stroke of genius by the organizers and a credit to these two young men that they are willing to participate. Here’s a link to make your reservation. If you can’t be there you can still make a donation at the site.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Dear Santa
Dear Santa,
I’m a wrestling fan. No, not that steroid laden soap opera you see on “Smackdown” – or whatever. I love the “world’s oldest and greatest sport” – the sport of Socrates, Plato and Lincoln (Abraham or McIlravy)… the sport of Gable, Smith and Sanderson.
I know it’s late for sending you my “wish list” – but here it is.
Santa, I want wrestling to become an urban sport. It is the most democratic of all sports. You don’t have to win any kind of genetic lottery to excel – no excessive height, blazing speed or unusual hand/eye coordination is required. The competitor that works the hardest and learns the most almost always triumphs. Don’t we need to teach those lessons to more kids? Yet, young people in most of our largest cities have no opportunities to wrestle. I even know how you do it. You simply clone Al Bevilacqua from Beat the Streets in New York and drop an “Al” in Detroit or Los Angeles - wherever hundreds of thousands of kids are spending more time on the Wii than on the mat.
Santa, we need more opportunities for girls to wrestle. The lessons taught by wrestling are lessons of empowerment – you can control your own destiny. In all but a few states here in America (Washington, Texas, Hawaii and California) we make it almost impossible for girls to compete. We put unnecessary roadblocks to success in their way - and when someone like Tricia Saunders or Patricia Miranda or Michaela Hutchison fights through it all and does the extraordinary, we frequently fail to give her due credit. Let’s start here in Iowa, Santa. I’ve lived in this state for 56 of my 58 years. Iowa was a pioneer in providing interscholastic athletic competition for girls and has one of the richest wrestling histories in the world. Why can’t we join those two heritages together?
May we please have more college wrestling programs – men’s and women’s? If we believe in the value of wrestling’s lessons, we need educators that can teach those lessons. As youth participation on the mats continues to grow we will need more and better coaches. From where will they come if we continue to eliminate intercollegiate opportunities?
Santa, please make FILA give us back exciting freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. I want to see John Smith turning guys like a top again. How many fans can we bring to a sport where the most riveting action has become the selection of a colored ball from a bag?
Speaking of fans – could you make them more active? Would you get them out from behind the keyboard and in the seats at five or six events a year. I don’t care where – kids’ tournaments, high school meets or the Olympic Trials – just make them pay a few bucks and actually support the sport. And what about the millions of ex-high school wrestlers in America – could you sprinkle them with some kind of magic dust that would convert them into active fans?
Santa, please bring us more and better coverage of the sport. I understand the television Catch 22 – you can’t get air time without a profitable audience and you can’t build an audience without air time. You’ll probably have to mend the fences between the “mainstream” and the “underground” to make this happen, but it can be done. And while you’re at it, please make those providing the coverage give the sport the respect it has earned. After all, Frank Gifford once called Dan Gable “the most dedicated athlete I have ever seen”. John Smith was once named America’s top amateur athlete. Cael Sanderson’s undefeated career and bi-lateral amputee, Nick Ackerman’s Division III national championship are included on the list of the NCAA’s 25 defining moments. These great athletes, and the thousands of others toiling in wrestling rooms around the world, deserve better than to be compared to an entertainer like Hulk Hogan – as was done by the ESPNU in-studio “talent” prior to the broadcast of the Iowa/Iowa State dual meet.
Finally, Santa, I want a new Division III Championships attendance record in Cedar Rapids this March.
I’ll wait a couple of years before I ask you for the Olympic Trials.
I’m a wrestling fan. No, not that steroid laden soap opera you see on “Smackdown” – or whatever. I love the “world’s oldest and greatest sport” – the sport of Socrates, Plato and Lincoln (Abraham or McIlravy)… the sport of Gable, Smith and Sanderson.
I know it’s late for sending you my “wish list” – but here it is.
Santa, I want wrestling to become an urban sport. It is the most democratic of all sports. You don’t have to win any kind of genetic lottery to excel – no excessive height, blazing speed or unusual hand/eye coordination is required. The competitor that works the hardest and learns the most almost always triumphs. Don’t we need to teach those lessons to more kids? Yet, young people in most of our largest cities have no opportunities to wrestle. I even know how you do it. You simply clone Al Bevilacqua from Beat the Streets in New York and drop an “Al” in Detroit or Los Angeles - wherever hundreds of thousands of kids are spending more time on the Wii than on the mat.
Santa, we need more opportunities for girls to wrestle. The lessons taught by wrestling are lessons of empowerment – you can control your own destiny. In all but a few states here in America (Washington, Texas, Hawaii and California) we make it almost impossible for girls to compete. We put unnecessary roadblocks to success in their way - and when someone like Tricia Saunders or Patricia Miranda or Michaela Hutchison fights through it all and does the extraordinary, we frequently fail to give her due credit. Let’s start here in Iowa, Santa. I’ve lived in this state for 56 of my 58 years. Iowa was a pioneer in providing interscholastic athletic competition for girls and has one of the richest wrestling histories in the world. Why can’t we join those two heritages together?
May we please have more college wrestling programs – men’s and women’s? If we believe in the value of wrestling’s lessons, we need educators that can teach those lessons. As youth participation on the mats continues to grow we will need more and better coaches. From where will they come if we continue to eliminate intercollegiate opportunities?
Santa, please make FILA give us back exciting freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. I want to see John Smith turning guys like a top again. How many fans can we bring to a sport where the most riveting action has become the selection of a colored ball from a bag?
Speaking of fans – could you make them more active? Would you get them out from behind the keyboard and in the seats at five or six events a year. I don’t care where – kids’ tournaments, high school meets or the Olympic Trials – just make them pay a few bucks and actually support the sport. And what about the millions of ex-high school wrestlers in America – could you sprinkle them with some kind of magic dust that would convert them into active fans?
Santa, please bring us more and better coverage of the sport. I understand the television Catch 22 – you can’t get air time without a profitable audience and you can’t build an audience without air time. You’ll probably have to mend the fences between the “mainstream” and the “underground” to make this happen, but it can be done. And while you’re at it, please make those providing the coverage give the sport the respect it has earned. After all, Frank Gifford once called Dan Gable “the most dedicated athlete I have ever seen”. John Smith was once named America’s top amateur athlete. Cael Sanderson’s undefeated career and bi-lateral amputee, Nick Ackerman’s Division III national championship are included on the list of the NCAA’s 25 defining moments. These great athletes, and the thousands of others toiling in wrestling rooms around the world, deserve better than to be compared to an entertainer like Hulk Hogan – as was done by the ESPNU in-studio “talent” prior to the broadcast of the Iowa/Iowa State dual meet.
Finally, Santa, I want a new Division III Championships attendance record in Cedar Rapids this March.
I’ll wait a couple of years before I ask you for the Olympic Trials.
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