Entertaining Thousands in Harvard Yard

"My boyhood saw

Greek islands floating over Harvard Square.”

-- Horace Gregory
Chorus for Survival

Once again, I was mistaken about my opportunities having ended. My college class at Harvard and the corresponding class from Radcliffe have held combined reunions every five years since we graduated. Because I operated a small consulting firm near Harvard Square during the early years after we graduated, I was usually asked to share some of my staff to help run the reunions. The third time this happened, my role was expanded and I was asked to be the co-head of our 20^th reunion. Along with my friend Deborah Weisgall, the writer, I had the great pleasure of organizing a four-day party in 1988 that ran virtually nonstop. At one time or another we had over 3,000 people attending. And they were paying for the party. I only had to pay for my small portion, which I would have done anyway. So although it wasn’t totally for free, there was no added expense.

Naturally, another country mansion came unexpectedly into play. One of our classmates, Steve Roy, grew up near Boston where his family has a magnificent home in Cohasset on many acres facing the ocean. Steve kindly offered his family’s home for free for a field day, and we held a day filled with great conversations, races, laughs, music and boiled lobsters. A great time was had by all.

But this wasn’t my only chance to be a host to thousands. During those reunion years, a few members of each of the younger reunion classes are also asked to dress up in formal wear (for men, that means top hat and tails) and be hosts to the more than ten thousand alumni, family and friends who come to Cambridge annually for the graduation ceremonies. Because my good friend and classmate, Vic Koivumaki, worked in the university alumni office, somehow I was always selected for this gentle and pleasant task.Naturally, it cost me something to rent my formal wear (I don’t have any other need for top hat and tails), but the cost was affordable and well worth the expense.

Chances are that you went to high school and you may have also done some college or graduate school work. I’m sure your school classes have reunions and you can help direct those. If your class isn’t having reunions, you need to organize one for them!

Or, you belonged to a military unit that has reunions . . . or a labor union that has a family event once a year. My Dad didn’t make it past third grade, and he regularly helped put on reunions for his fellow Army air corpsmen from World War II. Or your company has a family day that someone needs to organize.

If your extended family doesn’t hold reunions, it should. My Dad’s family has held such an occasion in a lovely park in central Illinois for many decades. It’s always the same weekend. If you want to come, you just need to bring food for the pot luck supper. Different parts of the family organize it each year. If that’s not big enough for you, encourage other families to hold their family reunions at the same time so you can do larger scale events.

Many towns have a day when they turn a central area into a fair or block party. You can be the person who organizes that event. Many churches, temples and schools offer similar events.

What are you waiting for?

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell

Dances, Concerts and Pep Rallies for Thousands in California

“Come on, baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire.”

-- The Doors
Light My Fire

Entertaining on a grand scale was something that I had always wanted to do, but had been frustrated in pursuing as a youngster. When I was young, our family lived in a small two bedroom house on a tiny lot in San Bernardino, California, which is located halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs at the edge of the Mojave Desert. If you had put people elbow to elbow, you could probably have fit 16 standing people into our living room and dining room combined. Our back yard and patio weren’t any larger. While my friends often ran large parties for 40 or more at their homes, I didn’t see how it would be possible at our house.

But I always wanted to throw big parties like my friends did. One day that opportunity became available. As a high school student, I was elected as the director of activities for my senior year. This meant I was in charge of running retreats, concerts, assemblies and dances for our rather large school of over 3,300 students. During those days I got used to the idea of planning and putting on entertainment for over 3,000 people. In fact, I got a little spoiled because bands who wanted me to hire them would put on free rehearsal concerts for me. They also gave me free tickets to come to other dances and concerts they were running.

My girl friends and I had an exciting, brief career as rock promoters. As all of this ended, I hoped that someday I would be able to throw big events again, but assumed that I wouldn’t.

So you’re past high school age, you say. Well, you still have a great opportunity to host big parties. You need to get involved with nonprofit organizations that want to raise money. These organizations often throw big parties as a way to attract funds. And they need lots of people to organize and run those parties. You can start small as an assistant and work up to running the whole event. A friend of mine got to be so good at this that nonprofit organizations compete for her talents in this area.

Political campaigns offer similar opportunities. Candidates arrange to speak at a local place, their organizations drum up people to attend, and they need someone locally to organize and host the actual entertainment part of the event. You can be one of those people. I have also been to some terrific large campaign parties in exchange for a donation that wasn’t much different than the cost of eating out. In many cases, wealthy supporters will loan their beautiful homes for the purpose. The candidate's staff will introduce you to the right people if you don't already know any.

Artists provide similar opportunities to host openings for their newest work. Generally, artists are more interested in creating art than in organizing the openings. You can easily become the person they rely on to organize and help them host these events. Usually, a gallery will provide a location and some funds to help pay for the event. The artist will usually pay for the rest.

Donald Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell

From Humble, but Hopeful, Beginnings

“In dreams begins responsibility.”

-- William Butler Yeats

Responsibilities

epigraph (from an old play)

To put you in the right frame of mind to live large and free through low-cost billionaire benefits, let me tell you a little about my story. Although your path through life has been different from mine, I think you will see that parallel opportunities abound in your life among areas you may not have considered.

My Dad and Mom did not finish high school. They both dropped out during the Depression to work in order to help support their families. We had a small and decent home that I loved, but my Dad always had to work two or three jobs to pay for it and the rest of our expenses. But we were rich in love, and I thought that was the greatest richness of all. I craved having more time with my Dad so I often joined him to work in his gardening business so I could see more of him.

When I was young, my Mother read to me constantly in the evenings and filled my mind with the idea that I could accomplish anything, as long as I was determined and worked hard. I accepted that view even though our family experienced few worldly signs of living with large accomplishments. But my Dad certainly had the hard work part down pat. Little did I know at the time that it’s much easier than what she described to live my dreams. But I’ll get to that later.

I studied hard, worked long hours every week in my Dad’s gardening business and tried to learn as much as possible about everything that interested me. My curiosity allowed me to learn lessons I hadn’t expected. I had my first big surprise when I was in 5^th grade, and the students in our class pursued a project to find out about other states. While my classmates wrote away for information from just one state, I wrote to all of them. You wouldn’t believe all of the beautiful brochures and guides that I received in return . . . and each set of materials came for just the cost of a postage stamp, envelope and a piece of writing paper. Many other times since then I have been overwhelmed by extreme generosity in response to my simple curiosity. I began to see the world as a potentially open door to wonderful adventures if you just knocked politely on it.

While in high school, I realized that I would have to earn scholarships to afford any school other than the junior college in our town. Having adopted my Mom’s beliefs, I decided to be optimistic. So I only applied to top schools and filled out the paper work to apply for every scholarship I could find. These decisions paid off well for me when I earned two scholarships for college. All of my room, board and tuition were covered. My family and I only had to pay for books, transportation to and from school, clothes and spending money. I took a job at school and worked during the summers to help offset those costs.

Through that doorway of opportunity, I began to perceive the opportunities live large and free around me. The much larger of my two scholarships was solely based on merit, and I would have received a portion of that money even if my father had been John D. Rockefeller. That really got me thinking. If you could receive enough money to pay for your room at a wonderful school for free even when you didn’t need the money, what else might be available?

Donald Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell