November felt busy but a little slow at the same time. The Core Medical Interpreter Training ended on the second Sunday of November, and nearly the entire class passed. I think this round of CMIT went really well overall from what I heard from the instructors and participants, which is really great. One participant in particular has been very connected with KITA on Facebook and has even attended the Interpreter Meet-ups we had in November. I think it’s really great that people are becoming more involved with KITA, even if it’s only a small handful of individuals. In the long run, I hope that these people will not only stay involved but also expand KITA’s presence in the community too.
Speaking of the interpreter meet-ups, we hosted these during our fundraisers. During the first full week of November, we hosted a fundraiser at MOD Pizza; although we might not have gotten as much as money as other organizations, I think the event went really well. We had what we considered a really good turn out, and people really said that they liked attending the interpreter meet-up and the world traveler meet-up that we hosted too. From what we could tell, it seems that people really e enjoyed being able to interact with others and dine together. At the end of November, we hosted another fundraiser (in conjunction with the meet-ups) at Buffalo Wild Wings, which seemed to get the same results.
Personally, I think the fundraisers are a really great idea because it is not only a great way to obviously get funds and raise awareness about KITA on a small scale but it is also a great way to connect with the interpreter/translator community like we want to do. For that reason, I am working on planning more fundraisers, so that we can keep hosting the meet-ups. It is our goal to have host one once a month (preferably at the end of the month) at various places in town. Another goal we have is to host the fundraisers/meet-ups each month, so that we maintain our presence in the community and sustain our connections as well. It is my goal to host the fundraisers/meet-ups at different types of locations for multiple reasons: to expand our presence, to raise awareness, to partner with different types of restaurants and businesses, and (i.e. coffee shops, local restaurants, etc.), and to offer a different environment for the meet-ups each month.
On Giving Tuesday, the GoodGiving Challenge officially started and this is KITA's first time participating. For anyone who might not know, the GoodGiving Challenge is a powerful, five week online giving celebration that connects Central and Appalachia Kentucky with the causes they care about. I attended the Blue Grass Community Foundation hosted a pep rally downtown. The mayor gave a short speech, and we all stood behind him with our posters. It's definitely been a good learning experience for me because I have learned what it takes to engage a whole team to work on a project and how to promote an organization’s participation in something like this. I'm not sure if KITA will participate again next year or not because it is really difficult, in my opinion, for smaller nonprofits to stand out and receive enough donations. Nevertheless, it's been a great way to increase our community presence as well as improve our connections with other organizations and people in the community.
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