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viewsRachel Coleman | Giving Back with Style
By Chris Kuhn, Monday, March 8, 2010
Many of us say we wish we volunteered more, but how many of us actually do anything about it? Rachel Coleman wasn’t content to attend networking groups and take part in the occasional fundraiser. She wanted to do more to give back and felt that enough other women in the Tampa Bay area felt the same way. She and longtime friend Jessica Grimsley put their heads together to launch a new nonprofit organization. The result? High Hopes in High Heels (www.highhopesinhighheels.org) in mid-2009.
“We were both involved as members of Junior League and participants in the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk for two years, and every single fundraiser we did was for the 3-Day Walk. The more we did them, the more we enjoyed them, but we felt there were so many other worthy causes in the Tampa Bay area, too,” says the Tampa native who now resides in the Carrollwood area. “We wanted to do something where we could volunteer within a local organization but also host events and raise money to give back to the organization. But just not for one cause.”
Much like she took her interest in pursuing greater volunteer work to the next level by co-founding her own organization, Rachel spends much of her free time pursuing further industry knowledge about her other passion in life, event planning. She’s currently enrolled in certificate programs through USF for nonprofit management as well as meeting and event planning. Though she’s returned to the corporate world to support her pursuit of this additional education which includes certification through the Association of Bridal Consultants, she slowly continues to grow her own independent event planning business Happily Ever After Events, Inc. which primarily focuses on wedding planning but also coordinates fundraisers and private corporate events.
“Event planning is my true passion. I like dealing with different vendors and seeing the final product after doing all the work,” she says.
Rachel stays active in other Tampa organizations, including The Junior League of Tampa, BizEChicks and the St. Pete. Evening Guild of All-Children’s Hospital. She also is currently on two of the planning committees for the Susan G. Komen Suncoast Affiliate’s Pink Tie Gala, one of its largest fundraisers.
To Rachel, launching High Hopes in High Heels has been such a wonderful experience because it filled a need here in the Bay area.
“We found a lot of other women felt like we did. They had an interest in giving back but weren’t sure where to start,” she says. “Volunteering is the best feeling you can get, helping someone out.”
Rachel says when members join High Hopes in High Heels, they will be introduced to several organizations that the nonprofit is focused on supporting that year and members will tend to gravitate toward those causes that interest them most and get involved in the projects they wish to contribute to or even host.
This year, the organization has made a few changes that Rachel says she believes will provided added value to membership for those who join. The group has planned upcoming get-togethers that include personal and professional development outings as well as fundraiser and volunteer campaigns. Such group events as car care clinics and self-defense courses are designed to encourage members to get to know one another better while enhancing their knowledge. The group is introducing a new point-scoring feature designed to reward those members who participate and contribute the most. For each event a member attends, leads or contributes to in some way, that member earns points. At the end of the year, those who’ve accumulated the most points will go into a raffle drawing for a big prize. Annual membership dues are $60 and includes the opportunity to be featured on the organization’s blog at some point during the year to promote their business or company they represent.
When she’s not hard at work or volunteering, Rachel loves spending time with her boyfriend and his young son, and of course, with Scooby Doo, her own hound mix “pound puppy” she adopted. She enjoys traveling abroad and is getting herself back into an old familiar hobby, running, something she expects will be helpful for the many walk/run fundraisers held each year in the Bay area.
This Wednesday, March 10, Rachel and her co-founder Jessica will be holding the Annual Kickoff Party for High Hopes in High Heels. At this kickoff, guests will get to hear from a representative from each of the six selected charities that the group will be supporting this year. These groups are: the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, Girls Inc., Centre for Women, Kids Charity of Tampa Bay, Metropolitan Ministries and Shriners Hospital. In addition to networking and learning more about the organization, attendees will get the opportunity to join at a discounted membership rate ($50). For more information or to RSVP for the event, email Rachel and Jessica at hhinhh@yahoo.com.
“At High Hopes, you’ll meet a lot of other positive women trying to do good for their community,” she says. “Everyone is there for the same reason, everyone’s genuine.”
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