WCPN Interview

Promoting Wigs For Kids In Cleveland – A True Labor Of Love

By the time I came home, I had already raised about $2000 for Wigs For Kids via the Crazy Hair Fundraiser, yet I’d never met anyone from Wigs For Kids face-to-face. It had all been by email.

Wigs For Kids, assisted by the PR team at H/L Communications, did what they could to maximize the six days I offered them to do PR while in the Cleveland area. I could help bring greater awareness to the Cleveland area about a great organization in our own backyard, tell my story and how I got involved with them, and promote the 7th Annual Zoo Walk happening on July 28th, 2012.

Getting A Cold

Peru really wasn’t good for my health. My stomach was a mess in Yauya. The day before my speech at Centrum Business School I came down with a nasty cold. Then, my last week in Peru I had a nasty cold as well.

In the case of Yauya and Centrum, I had to speak to an audience in Spanish. My accent plus sinus blockage equals an extra difficult time for others to understand my Spanish. Unfortunatley, my cold didn’t fully disappear for all my media and events at home, but it wasn’t too bad.

Newspaper Interviews

My first day back in the US was pretty busy. First, I had the pre-interview for my NPR interview. Then I had a phone interview for the local newspaper here.

I wasn’t too tired despite flying overnight. On the plane I got about four hours of solid sleep. Since I”ve become accustomed to taking overnight buses and not really sleeping, the plane was comparatively comfortable and luxurious.

Then, at the Family Heritage Insurance event below, a reporter from The Cleveland Plain Dealer was there and we had a great, great conversation/interview after the event. We really connected well and I love the column she writes for the community. You can see her article here.

Family Heritage Insurance Event

In between the radio and newspaper interviews, we paid a visit to Family Heritage Insurance. They are Wigs For Kids’ biggest corporate sponsor. They hosted a lunch since I’d be in town and I gave a 20-minute speech abut what I’m doing, what they are doing (corporate social responsibility), and tying together how we’re part of making our community a better place.

There were also two beautiful little girls there – one who received a wig as a result of battling alopecia and one to receive her very first haircut and donate the hair toward a future wig! The girl donating her hair, he family is from Dominican Republic and it was nice to speak Spanish with them.

The girl who received the wig is from Strongsville, where I grew up. Her dad gave an emotional speech about how the whole process started, how the loss of hair affected her self-esteem, and how Wigs For Kids stepped in to help.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t embed the news coverage of the event, but you can see a video of it here. Below are some pictures of the event.

Radio Interviews

In Cleveland I also had the pleasure of doing four radio interviews to talk about my trip and my support of Wigs For Kids.

WELW

This interview was done on my first day back in the U.S. The show was live on location from a local mall and the guys were really nice.

A sound clip of the interview is here:

And below are two videos courtesy of my uncle!

WAKR
The day after I got home I had this interview live with Akron’s WAKR on their My Beautiful Home Show.

Below is the interview clip.

WCPN

WCPN Interview

WCPN Interview

This is Cleveland’s NPR station and they had a whole Happiness Plunge themed show. They interviewed me throughout the show and had other people on the show who have followed their passions in life.

It was great to hear others’ stories and also those of the listeners who called in to share their stories.

Later in the day, I met two people who heard me on the radio in the morning. Strange!

The link to the story is here and below is the interview.

WDOK/WQAL

WDOK Interview With Jeffrey Paul And Jim McIntyre

WDOK Interview With Jeffrey Paul And Jim McIntyre

My final interview took place on the day I left Cleveland. It was a joint interview with Jeffrey Paul, the founder of Wigs For Kids.

The interview was broadcast on both WDOK and WQAL (102.1 and 104.1) in Cleveland the following weekend as part of community programming on the station.

You can see the blog post about it on WDOk’s website here, and listen to the interview below.

Conclusion

It was truly an honor and a privilege to do all of this promotion of Wigs For Kids. Having visited Cleveland now, I can confirm that they are as pure as they seemed when I first started communicating with them. Truly amazing and inspirational people and I’m so glad we teamed up.

It was also fulfilling to meet a recipient of a wig to see what it’s all about.

If you want to support Wigs For Kids, you can donate money via my Crazy Hair Fundraiser, walk in the 7th Annual Zoo Walk if you live in the Cleveland area, or hosting a cut-a-thon.

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Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] I had missed this flight, I would have missed three interviews in the afternoon for Wigs For Kids. I’m very thankful it all worked […]

  2. […] I was back at home last year, I think my frankness and honesty was a bit shocking to many people I met for the first time as […]

  3. […] I’ve settled into a stride being away from home. I usually make it home once a year, as I did in 2012 and as I did in surprising my mom for […]

  4. […] After spending time promoting Wigs For Kids in Cleveland, I headed to North Carolina to be with my immediate […]

  5. […] May 29th I had a radio interview in the morning, the Wigs For Kids corporate event, and then a meeting with a representative at Case […]

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