Alright, it is really 20 slides, 15 seconds each to tell my food allergy story at this Thursday’s Ignite Reno event! The purpose of “Ignite” events, which are hosted nationwide, are to provide enlightenment in five minutes! I need your help finding one last slide of a village or community that you took and have the copyright to use. I’m putting the finishing touches on the my presentation today and I’m struggling finding my last slide. My last point will be that it takes a village and I can’t find any pictures that show a nice diverse crowd of people that I can legally use with permission. Please email me at caroline@gratefulfoodie.com, if you have a photo or an idea. Fourteen of us will be given the opportunity to share what ever topic floats our boat. Obviously, I chose Food Allergies! My hope is to find a way to present a serious topic with some humor. Ignite Reno is being hosted in the Cargo Night Club inside the fabulous sustainable, hip and smoke-free Whitney Peak Hotel (can you tell that I love that place). Since the presentations are in a bar, if I come off too serious, then I’ll loose the audience, but….. this disease is serious business!
Details:
Ignite Reno
Cargo Concert Hall located inside the Whitney Peak Hote
255 North Virginia Street, Reno, NV
November 20th, 2014 – 6:30-9:30pm FREE!!! Cash Bar inside Cargo, lovely happy hour before the event at the Heritage Restaurant, which is another fine Mark Estee establishment.
My goal. This has been a good task for me since I’m so bloody long winded. I want the 200 guests to walk away with a chuckle and asking their colleagues and others if they have life threatening food allergies and how they can help. It has been hard to find that fine line of humor and wanting a hammer to slam down the horrific reality of life threatening food allergies. Poor Connie Green, co-founder of the California Advocates for Food Allergies has been my sounding board. I keep sending her my slide show drafts and asking her opinions. The kind woman was talking nose picking photos with me yesterday as she drove to her son’s soccer finals. Yes, I am using a photo of a man picking his nose to share one point about how allergens just need to get into a body through one orifice. My kids refused to pose for the photo but they have experienced an allergic reaction due to finger mining for gold. I’m used to speaking to my food allergy peeps or legislators–both who want to hear about this topic, so this is a new crowd for me. I’m a tad out of my comfort zone, but I need to educate my community, so off to a bar I go! Wish me luck!
One of the hardest things I find about managing both life threatening food allergies and asthma is talking to others. I hate to be the one that might be perceived as demanding, pushing or for asking too much. What I now know, fourteen years later, is that honest, clear information presented with kindness works!..