Little Friends of Rittenhouse

            What a long, strange week it’s been.

            After a crazy 10-hour workday on Wednesday, I was ready to spend the next day relaxing at the beach. Unfortunately, my attempt at a stress-free day was more stressful than any day at work.

            I thought that a jam-packed day at work and the fact that my little cousins were in town was the perfect excuse to go down the shore. However, over halfway there, I got rear-ended. I was stopped at a toll and there was an accident on the side of the road. All of the sudden, I heard glass crashing and I was being jerked forward. A woman, who had three little girls in the car, had been rubbernecking the accident on the side and did not slow down for the toll. That’s right: she did not break at all.

The car that hit me.

All of the woman’s airbags deployed and her car was completely totaled. On top of all that, I had my younger cousins in my backseat. I was initially panicked but luckily, my baby (known to some as a car) saved our lives and we all came out with minor soreness. While we survived, I learned today that my car did not. (Side note, I’ve been crying about it all day.)

My baby getting towed.

            I felt as though I had to at least mention my accident, but the real reason I’m writing is to explain why I needed a day at the beach. It started at Nest in Center City Philadelphia and ended with an event called Little Friends of Rittenhouse.

            As I have explained in a previous post, Nest is a children’s enrichment center that Gloss PR just took on as a client. Gloss has several goals in regards to Nest’s public relations plan. One of these goals is to bring Philadelphia visitors in for a day-of-play. In order to do so, a few other interns (who just started) and I put together bags to give out to the higher-end hotels. Instead of meeting in the office, we met at Nest. While my bosses were in a meeting with the Nest executives, the other interns and I were putting together the bags. Each bag included a schedule of Nest classes and activities and coupons for a discounted day at the play center.

The Nest bags we put together and delivered.

            The week before, I had gone through our database of hotels and printed out labels with the hotel name and address to be used on the bags. After assigning each bag a destination with a label, we separated them geographically. My experience during the Preview Party and the Spring Festival made me a Philadelphia expert, which in turn made me very useful in organizing our routes. We then assigned ourselves to one group of bags to deliver. Since I am extremely familiar with Rittenhouse, I took on the hotels in that area.

The Rittenhouse Botique Hotel, which was one of the hotels I had to deliver to.

            Before we set out on our bag-delivering journey, we got a tour from the Nest manager. The facility is an impressive three stories. The color scheme is bright and cheery, incorporating a lot of greens and purples. The middle floor includes the front desk and children’s boutique, which sells everything from high-end children’s clothing to games and toys. Downstairs is the play area. Only members are allowed in this section, which is very whimsical and inviting. The spot includes a fake tree with a slide, a “boating” area, a swing, and lots and lots of toys. The upper floor is where the classes take place. The classrooms resemble a dance studio, with open floor space and wall-to-wall mirrors. There is also an arts and crafts room on the upper level.

            Once we were Nest experts, we were released to deliver the bags. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and I was practically giddy to be able to walk around beautiful Rittenhouse Square and do my job. I went into each hotel and said something along the lines of:

            “Hi my name is Brooke and I am a representative of Nest, which is a children’s enrichment center in Center City. Nest has coupons for a discounted day-of-play that they would love to give you. We are hoping that you will give them out to guests with little children.”

            I went to eight hotels and got all positive responses. Each concierge smiled, thanked me, and took the bags without hesitation. It felt amazing to help Nest reach their goal and to fulfill my mission.

            After I finished the Nest job, I had to wait until Little Friends of Rittenhouse started. The event was a children’s event in Rittenhouse Square. While Rittenhouse Row is an organization for the businesses in the area, Friends of Rittenhouse is an organization for the area’s residents. Little Friends of Rittenhouse brings the children’s-related businesses, organizations, and restaurants under one tent for a night of family fun. There are many tables with various activities and food samples and there is a DJ, who leads the event.

Not a bad work environment.

            I finished the bag delivery around 2 p.m. and didn’t have to be anywhere until 4:30, which left me with two hours to kill in the city. Lucky for me, Philadelphia is a good place to be when you have time to spare. I went to a coffee shop for a delicious iced coffee, visited Ulta and perused around for new lipstick, and ate in the overwhelming-but-delicious Reading Terminal Market for the first time.

            Another intern and I still had some time to spare after we finished lunch, so we decided to sit at Starbucks for the remainder of our break. At that point, we were sore and tired. We had been up and running for a long time, and we were beginning to feel it. Instead of being able to go home as we usually would, we had an event ahead of us. Even though my feet hurt and I was physically spent, I was excited to work the event. In my opinion, events give you experience and knowledge that you could never gain in an office. Therefore, I want to work any event I can.

            When the time finally came, I drove to UPenn’s campus to pick up ice cream donations from Ben & Jerry’s. The school was beautiful and it was interesting to see a campus that was so different from my own.

            At the event, it was my assignment to work the ice cream station. In the beginning, I was just standing there watching the ice cream melt. It’s going to be a long night, I thought. Turns out I was right. But the event was not going to drag on due to lack of customers. In fact, the opposite was true.

Before it was all a melted mess.

It seemed that after guests sampled dinner food such as pizza and pasta, they all had the same idea: Ben & Jerry’s. Suddenly, I had a seemingly endless line of people anxiously awaiting their free cookies & cream. The ice cream was almost impossible to scoop and extremely messy. I was getting so behind and at one point, I just wanted to cry out for help.

            Then, almost as a gift from above, a woman came over and asked me if I needed help. “Yes,” I replied, probably too quickly. For the next hour and a half or so, this lovely woman and I slaved over the melting Ben & Jerry’s. By the end of the event, I was tired, hungry, and covered in chocolate ice cream. I was the last Gloss person to leave the event, even after my bosses.

            Despite the fact that the day was long and stressful, it was nice to get more hands-on experience. But hopefully next time, my hands wont be covered in Ben & Jerry’s. 

The beginning of Little Friends of Rittenhouse.

Internship Update

          When The Spring Festival and the Preview Party passed, I expected things at my internship to slow down. While there has been a little less frantic running around the city, my expectations were not correct. I figured that it was time to do a little “internship update,” filling everyone in on what I have been doing post-Spring Festival and Preview Party.

            Perhaps the biggest part of the Preview Party is the silent auction. The winners are announced at the end of the night and the guests are instructed to pay for and retrieve their items on their way out. However, many guests either leave before the winners are announced or do not realize they have won something. This leaves us with many unclaimed and unpaid-for items. We then take all of these prizes back to the office where they sit untouched until they are given to their rightful owner. I have the responsibility of making these prizes go away.

            For the last few weeks, I have been left with piles of bid sheets, gift cards, and prizes. I had to call each winner to collect they payment over the phone, using the program Intuit. I also had to get their address. If the item was a gift card, I would simply mail it. However if it was a package, I had to hand-

Stopping to smell the roses (or take a picture) while on a delivery.

deliver the prize. This required me to navigate the city while carrying various baskets and prizes, which was not an easy thing to do. In addition, many people did not answer the first time I called them. I had to call many people several times, which required me to work on my people skills over the phone.

            I have finally delivered the majority of the silent auction items to the winners. As for the prizes that did not sell, I had to create a document with the unsold items for my boss to send out to her husband’s business. This required me to take pictures of the items on my phone and put them on a Word Document with the item description, value, and starting bid.

            In addition to wrapping things up from the Preview Party, I have been doing several other tasks. This includes updating contact sheets, calling clients, and putting upcoming events on various website calendars.

            Gloss PR has had other events since the Spring Festival. Last week, I worked an event sponsored by Kids in Center City Philadelphia, which is an organization devoted to enriching children’s experiences in Philadelphia. The organization hosts children’s events and provides information about schools, summer camps, birthday locations, and more.

            The event that I worked was at The Market & Shops at Comcast Center.

The awesome view of The Comcast Center.

           Children at the event were given the opportunity to meet Cailou, a television character from Sprout. There were also several stations with multiple kid-friendly activities such as cupcake decorating. My job was to work the bracelet-making station. I had to provide the children with the beads and string of their choice. In order to obtain some demographics and customer information, we had an auction for a gift card to The Market & Shops at Comcast Center. On their ticket, guests had to put their name and email address. After the auction, we collected the email addresses to put on our mailing list for future Kids in Center City events. My second job was to invite the parents to enter the drawing. Overall, the event went smoothly. There was a great turnout and the children were so excited to meet Cailou. It was amazing to help put a smile on the kids’ faces and it was nice to see the family-friendly side of public relations.

The bracelet-making station at the event.

            Gloss recently obtained a new client, and with that, I gained a new project. The client is Nest, which is a children’s enrichment center that provides services such as classes for kids and parents, birthday parties, and a family lounge. Nest decided to drop their latest public relations firm and sign on with Gloss.

            My boss assigned me to a huge project involving Nest. She explained how hospitals give out “birthing bags” to new mothers that contain information on parenting and often include promotional items for kid-related places. Nest wants to give out $100 gift cards in these bags in the three major hospitals in Philadelphia: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson Hospital, and Pennsylvania Hospital. My job is to make it happen. My boss basically told me that if this doesn’t happen, it is on me. I am both excited and a little nervous to have this responsibility. In a way, it is my time to shine and prove that I am a competent intern. However, I am very scared of failing.

            I have gotten a few leads on the project. I started by looking up the communications staff of each hospital. I have spoken with a Communications Director of Jefferson on the phone and I am waiting for her to email me back about my inquiry.

The Nest logo

I got the name of a woman at HUP who is the correct person to talk to, but the number seems to be disconnected. I am going to call the hospital this week to correct the mistake. As for now, it is a waiting game to get some answers. I am determined to make this happen and prove myself and I think that with my drive and ability, I just might be able to do it.