Day 1624

Taste of the South 2011 has officially come and gone, and I must say, it was a huge success! With the help of our amazing, supportive donors, this year we will be giving over $200,000 to charity. Makes all that hard work so well worth it!

Day 1533

All of you should know by now of my charity work with Taste of the South (TOTS), a Washington, DC based organization made up of Southerns who work their tails off to raise money each year for Southern charities. This year's event will take place on Saturday, April 16th at DAR Constitution Hall, and Arkansas is the featured state! Our selected charity is Children's Safety Center, located in Springdale, AR, a child advocacy center for abused children.

I have been a busy, busy bee working as both the TOTS spokeswoman and also running Team Arkansas. We haven't secured much of our fundraising yet this year, but so far, we have secured Walmart as this year's presenting sponsor for the event (and we love them so much for all their support), and the University of Arkansas, North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Governor's Office and Union Pub have agreed to sponsor our efforts with in-kind donations. Nuclear Energy Institute, Politico and Entergy are also coming back as major sponsors this year for Arkansas, and we are hoping to add to that list!

Also, Jeremy Pittman with Palette Catering in Little Rock will serve as our featured VIP Chef for the this year's black tie gala. If you've never eaten at Palette, you are missing out! Their food is delicious, and I cannot wait to see what menu they come up with for this year's event.

In addition, we have a Honorary Congressional Host Committee, comprised of Members of Congress for each of the Southern states. Both Senators Mark Pryor and John Boozman have signed on again this year to serve as Honorary Hosts, as well as Congressmen Mike Ross and Steve Womack...and hopefully Congressmen Tim Griffin and Rick Crawford are coming in with their endorsements within the week. On Tuesday, April 12th, we will have a Congressional Reception in the Russell Senate office building to honor our charity, our committee and our major donors for the event, and hope all of our Arkansas Congressional Delegation will be there to assist us in this!

Today we got our first big bit of press, from Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper based in Washington. Check it out here, and to learn more about our event, check out our website at http://www.tasteofthesouth.org

If you are interested in sponsoring or attending Taste of the South 2011, let me know! Our sponsors are what make our party as fabulous as it is, and we appreciate all that you do for us and our charities!

Day 1307

Last night was Taste of the South, and I must say, this year was once again a huge success! It was a lot of fun, and I am completely worn out, but all the hard work was worth it--we raised over $200,000 for our Southern charities this year! Thank you to everyone who turned out to support us, to my wonderful committee and volunteers for the event, and to our sponsors...without you our event would not even happen.

Day 923

This was such a busy week! Finally today I got to just relax and do nothing...and it was fantastic! Not only was it crazy work wise, but I was also preparing all week (and really the past 8 months or so) for my big fundraiser last night, Taste of the South. Everything went great, we raised a lot of money for some amazing Southern charities, and we all had a ball! Thanks to everyone that helped us make 2009 TOTS such a huge success!



This week is another big one at work, and then the Senate has a week of recess for Memorial Day holiday. It can't get here fast enough. I think I'll be spending Memorial Day Weekend in West Virginia at my grandparents. My cousin is getting confirmed that weekend, and since I missed his Bar Mitzvah a few summers back, it'd probably be good to go if I can. I think my aunt and the kiddos will head over with me if they can get out of all of their baseball and soccer games. We'll see. Probably a good idea to get to bed early tonight though...it's going to be a tough one.

Day 558

Last night was my big fundraiser I'm involved with, and I spent most of yesterday setting up and then getting ready for the big event. It's definitely a sign of the times when companies even have to cut back on their charitable giving. Nevertheless, the night turned out to be a success, the Arkansas table looked good and we raised a lot of money for a lot of people in need. I HATE fundraising and am honestly pretty terrible at it, but knowing that it's for a good cause makes the task a bit easier.

I was pretty stupid and ended up wearing my heels with my dress for most of the event, but I was smart enough to bring along my flipflops to put on at the end. By that point, most girls had their shoes off anyway, and no one cared that I was limping around in my J.Crew flops. The toe is feeling much better now anyway, but still hasn't totally healed...I think that'll take at least a few more weeks. I didn't take my camera with me to the actual event because I didn't want to carry it with me all night, but I did get an okay picture before to share. I hope everyone else had a great weekend too!