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What would be the point of preparing such a beautiful feast, if no one knew about it? Diane Scott has been Bounty's Publicity Chairperson since 2005. It is her job to write up advertising articles for the newspapers, set up and conduct radio interviews with WHKP & WLOS TV, and create posters for downtown storefront windows.
Publicity for Bounty Of Bethlehem's Christmas Day dinner begins in September. Diane gets the copy started, and meets with Brenda Bradshaw, who does the ad creation. Diane also works directly with the Times News for ad placement, the insertion order for the size and dates of the ads, and scheduling the feature stories, news briefs, etc. She also works with Brenda on printed materials such as sticker labels for the Home Delivered Meal boxes, thank you cards, posters, cards, and other advertising pieces to be distributed throughout the county.
Diane does an update at the WHKP radio station almost weekly, all through November. Every year, she schedules a one week time slot with Bari at The Department Of Transportation, to have the Bounty Banner displayed on US 25 near the Fire Station. If it needs, replacement, she has a new banner made.
In December, WLOS TV (Channel 13) is contacted, to give them an update on current events, like volunteer sign up day, turkey drop, etc. Arrangements are made for the electronic billboards at Mountain 1st Bank, and United Community Bank to display notices of Bounty's Christmas Dinner. WNC Magazine and 211 are also contacted to bring them up to date. Diane also uses the internet to contact Susan O'Brien's Interfaith News to keep everyone on her list updated with Bounty events.
Whew! ...and that's just the publicity part of Diane's dedication to Bounty! Several years ago, she also initiated a coat drive to provide free coats for those in need, as well as collecting new toys for the children, as part of the Bounty Of Bethlehem celebration!
To get the coat drive started, each year, Diane goes online to all Hendersonville Schools, to update all the principals. Letters are written to the schools in early October, with a follow-up letter by the end of the month. All previous contributors such as Dr. Matt Young, are contacted. If they respond again, she mails them an information sheet on how to collect toys or coats at their schools. Posters are printed to hang on the walls of each school, and schedules are arranged to pick everything up.
Once Diane has the coats in her possession, it takes days to sort and clean them. Several volunteers help her at, "Friends of the Library," where all the coats are stored. Some coats are taken to Millers Cleaners for dry cleaning, while others are taken by her, to Millers Laundry in Laurel Park for machine washing. This is an all day task. Hangers are borrowed from Millers, then all of the coats are sorted, hung, and bagged in separate catagories, such as, men, women, boy, girl. Unused hangers left over after Bounty, are returned to Millers.
At the close of the Bounty Celebration, Diane sends personal thank you letters to all schools and Dr. Young. In addition, she publishes a thank you ad in the Times News.