Note from the Director of Program Services

Hello everyone! Hope you’re having a lovely and carefree day/week/month/year, and thanks for being a part of this wonderful organization called The Dream Factory. I wanted to take this opportunity to give an update on things I’ve been working on at our National Headquarters in Louisville and what we have planned in the coming weeks/months. The year 2013 will be here before we know it.

Following this year’s mAAgic Flight and our National Convention in Orlando – both of those were huge successes I want to add – I’ve been strategically planning ways to make dreams more cost efficient and developing my own system in planning dreams in an attempt to make my time at Nationals more efficient. I am also working on developing relationships with both companies and individuals that we can incorporate into these dreams. It’s been a fun experience. I will say that we had a busy month of October – mainly with Give Kids The World and Disney trips – but things are starting to slow down a bit. Besides a few more “Mickey Mouse” dreams, I’m also working on celebrity dreams like Taylor Swift, Tyler Perry, Brad Paisly and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

One thing I want to mention, and give thanks to, is Atlantis Resort. Nationals has recently worked out a deal where Atlantis sends us six complimentary trips each year for us to disperse out to our chapters as needed. I’ve already sent two families to Atlantis – free of charge! – and I’m working on two others at the moment. Atlantis has been awesome to us and I’m so excited to make more dreams come true through this partnership.

Also, as for an update on our website (we all know we need a new one!), the IT Committee is still looking at different options. After a conference call a few weeks back, we’re forming a list of things we need and want with this new site and then will determine which developer best fits those needs/wants. I have my fingers crossed that we’ll have our new website, ready to launch, in early 2013. I can’t wait!

Be sure to follow us, and encourage others, on Facebook and Twitter, and on this blog. We need to continue to get our word out! That’s www.facebookcom/dreamfactoryhq and www.twitter.comhqdreamfactory. I will be adding a YouTube Channel within the next month, where we can have a central place for all our videos.

One more thing I want to mention is our Dream Factory Marathon Team. Runners can choose any marathon or half-marathon this spring and raise money toward The Dream Factory. There are lots of benefits to doing this, on top of raising money for a great cause. If you’re interested, just send me an email at Tommie.kendall@dreamfactoryinc.org.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. From all of us at The Dream Factory, thank you for all you do!

-Tommie Kendall, Director of Program Services