mikeykaise

The Big Mike charm strikes again, its more powerful than the Force.

You have a donation now, I added a 3 dollar bonus for being an awesome TPR Member

I've done quite a bit of fundraising in the past. Don't continually pester the people that say they will give later. While some people just want you to go away and forget that they promised something. However, many will give later. Keep a list of all people who said they would give later and contact/approach them again 2 weeks before the final deadline for pledges. Two weeks out is enough to stress urgency and also give them time to budget out of there next paycheck if necessary. Let them know that you are xx% of dollars from your goal and their donation will help you reach that goal. I feel your pain, I've been putting things out there everywhere I can and mentioning it to everyone I can and I'm not getting very good results like others have been getting.

yeah I think I'll pass on the SCAD tower myself too. I don't think I could get myself to get enough nerve to do it, just give me a track and a car and you can spin me, loop me, and dive me all you want.

awesome trip report very funny, and El Toro is one of the coasters that are on my MUST RIDE Bucket list that thing looks like its a blast.

eek, the Kings Island team needs help, we're now the 2nd place team behind KIC. They are at $618 and we're at $596. I'm hoping all these postings and flyers at work will help since I'm employed at a very large world corporation but so far I've only had one $20 donation so I'm pushing the information out as much as I can. Here is the link to the TPR Team page for Kings Island: http://www.firstgiving.com/process/teamarea/default.asp?did=1785&teamid=182009

very cool place.... I haven't seen a Perkins since I was a young'un roaming the mean streets of Cincinnati and that's been 28 yrs ago. I loved Perkins back then and didn't think there was any around anymore. I'm thinking its time for a road trip.

I can just see it now, "Let's see where should I drop all my rides at," looking around as he's thinking, "Yep, this looks good". Its definitely an interesting tiny tiny park in an interesting setting. My whole thing is what about the building in the background is that the Maintenance building or is it a business where they got permission to setup shop out back? Have fun Big Mike and enjoy your break from doing postings. Dang nab it, now where will I get my daily Big Mike fixes from, oh well guess it's time to start over from the beginning for the next week or so.

Luckily, yes. We are currently pursuing two options that would provide us with additional land for the future. After land acquisition, our main focus is building up our back-of-house and food service operations to support an expansion and additional villas. Last year GKTW served a record 7,097 families, and we are projected to exceed that number in 2012. That is awesome Kara, your organization is well worth our time and effort and I hope we can raise enough between us all to achieve all of the goals GKTW has. For the rest of the club, it is now official that I'm a card carrying member (well will be in about 10 days or so when it shows up) but I have now become an official member with my first enthusiast club. Ace rejected me since I'm a featherweight so I guess y'all are stuck with me and with that being said the whole Initiation contest is still open to whoever makes the highest bid on my coasting for kids page! Come and get it...

thank you Kara, that is awesome and if today was payday I would make that $122 donation, blast you semi-monthly pay schedule *shakes fists at the pay gods*

This is really breath taking seeing just how many children have been helped. What will happen when there is no more ceiling space?

Here's my status report, so far I'm at $61 out of the $150 I would like to raise for this awesome place. I found out Friday that I could apply for a grant with our corporate office and if approved it would be a $500 grant that would be directly deposited to GKTW but that would qualify as a off-line donation... so if everyone can keep fingers, toes, and eyes crossed while saying a prayer I would greatly be appreciated!

I've been copying Kara's TPR over to Facebook and tagging her and my wife so the album will show up on their profile. If anyone else would like to be tagged so we can share this album and spread it even more just send me a friends request with TPR in the comments so I know who is sending me a friends request and I will be more than happy to tag anyone and everyone if it helps spread the word about GKTW. Here is my fb link: http://www.facebook.com/michael.a.kaiser GO TPR!!!

What a great carousel, that little princess is cute. I was never lucky enough to have a daughter but I still love my 2 boys with all my heart and wouldn't give them up for anything. Thank you Kara for the awesome pics and helping us learn all about such a fabulous place that does such good work.

what a nice little park with some cool looking rides, great trip report Hanno.

you da man Mike, we all enjoy your show, keep up the good work.

I want to say yes but better check with the wifey so I don't get into trouble first....

such a pretty paint job and what a fun looking ride it is.

same here, I'm only $15 shy of the minimum with just 3 donations so I had to raise my goal to $150 and I'm already to 40% of that goal now, its awesome to see all the people's generosity.

totally cool nostalgic rides. Thank you Big Mike, you da man for bringing us these little places off the beaten path. I love reading your road trips so very cool.

well I'm getting there, I'm up to $40 out of $150... the "Fun at Mikey's Expense" contest is still open. Who ever makes the highest donation to my donation page can decide on a fitting club initiation for me and I will provide pics for everyone's amusement.

Welcome to the KI Team Jason, and good luck with the fund-raising. I look forward to meeting you and the rest of the TPR team... Its definitely going to be a fun time especially since I've never ridden the beast at night time.

Kara, I hope you don't mind but I'm creating an album on my fb page named "Give Kids The World - Coasting for Kids" and I'm going to copy your trip report over to it each time and tag my wife in it. This is a really cool idea and thanking you for showing us all about GKTW.

I absolutely love Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area because its so beautiful. We were there last year but unfortunately it was part business part family trip so we didn't get a chance to do Dollywood like I had hoped. I think next time is a must especially since Eagle is open now and that think looks cool as all get out and I want to ride it.

duck and cover.... incoming!