A week away from the blog is forever in online time. But, it was with good reason, so I hope you’ll forgive me. MediaStyle recently wrapped up our largest sponsorship and event to-date: Planned Parenthood Ottawa’s Magic Boxes. It was a glitzy gala for the 45th anniversary of Ottawa’s best pro-choice sexual health organization. We are proud to have helped raise over $10,000. I worked closely with the Planned Parenthood Ottawa staff for over three months and sourced materials from over twenty vendors to create a total transformation of the Cube Gallery. Over the holidays, we’ll be creating a full case study and showing readers (and other Planned Parenthood chapters) how to create similar events.
Here is how Ottawa Citizen reporter Caroline Philips saw it in her Around Town column:
Do You Believe in Magic?
It was a night to step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and feast your eyes on the most amazing of entertainment, leaving one and all amazed by the fire spinning and hoop dancing, not to mention the sexy circus cabaret girls seen sashaying through Cube Gallery at Planned Parenthood Ottawa’s Magic Boxes bash.
The circus-themed 45th-anniversary party was brilliantly executed by organizer and sponsor Ian Capstick of MediaStyle, from the handy-dandy serviette-skirted server to the time-lapse Ferris wheel photo footage.
The evening featured 45 wooden boxes, decorated by artists and celebrities, for guests to bid on. There were boxes from Cathy Jones, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, and Rick Mercer. Capstick had bumped into Mercer on the ferry to the Toronto Island airport and got him to commit to doing a box. It came with tickets to see the Rick Mercer Report season finale, plus return flight and accommodations.
Gallery owner and artist Don Monet painted a “Round Lake Cubed” box. CPAC host Catherine Clark, who was event patron with her mom, women’s health advocate Maureen McTeer, spruced up a box with her three-year-old daughter, Alexandra. “I turned my head for 30 seconds and when I looked back, there was glitter glue everywhere,” Clark chuckled.
Also seen were Planned Parenthood’s executive director, Jeanette Doucet, board president MaryAnn Notarianni, and emcee or “ringmaster” Kimothy Walker with a riding whip. The evening raised roughly $11,000. (Photos here)
