Free Power and Passion by Kay Tejani

Sara replied. She sounded so sad and
almost defeated. "My superior, she wants to help. At least she said
she did, and she is always honest with me. I believe she was
interested in the idea. I understand the difficulty we would have
getting the organization to go for it, though."
    "Yes, I understand that too," Joan replied a
bit absently as the wheels in her mind began to turn at a rapid
pace. "So what sort of advice are you looking for?" she asked,
although she already had quite a few things lined up to tell
Sara.
    Sara laughed now, the sound of it light and
airy despite her somewhat downcast demeanor. "Anything you can tell
me," she replied. "I don't know…I just thought given your
experience, you might be able to help. Do you think it is possible
to do such a thing even when the company might not back it at
first? Is there a way for me to convince the Special Olympics
executives that this is a worthy project?"
    "Of course it's worthy," Joan said
immediately. "There is nothing wrong with wanting to bring
attention to your cause and, in the process, earning it some
funding. I think it's a fantastic idea."
    "But?"
    "No but, my dear." Joan laughed lightly.
"That's the message, full stop. I think your idea is solid and
viable. Your task then is to find a way to bring it to fruition.
The first thing I suggest is creating a written proposal with some
very solid facts and figures: estimates of costs involved, how many
people you would need, how many hours in total the planning and
execution stages would take. Any and every detail you can relate to
show it is a plan that can work."
    "Planning and execution stages," Sara
repeated as if she were writing down notes on what Joan had said.
"I've never written anything like that before. I mean I run events
for the organization, but they pretty much run themselves. SO
already had relationships with our vendors when I started here, and
there are procedures in place for just about everything I do." She
paused. "Perhaps that's part of the issue here. This gala would be
quite out of the ordinary. And people fear what they do not know,
isn't that the saying?"
    "It is," Joan replied. "And that could
certainly be part of it. Many companies, when they find a formula
that works, dislike veering away from it. And who can blame them?
There's another saying—if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
    "Yes, that's probably a more accurate
reason. All of us at SO do a lot of good work. It's just that I
feel I should do more. I want to do more."
    Joan smiled. "I can understand that. And I
know Special Olympics is an amazing organization. I don't mean to
put them down at all."
    "Oh, I totally agree," Sara was quick to
reply. "I love this company and all we do. I would never say a bad
word about it. I am just looking for a way to get this project done
because I believe it can really help SO, not because I disagree
with the way their business works. I just know if I can take
something more substantial than my original idea to management,
they will be supportive "
    "Good, good," Joan said, nodding her head as
she took a small sip of wine. "It's so important to believe in the
organization you work for and in what you do. You must have a
passion for it. Without that there would be no success."
    "I couldn't agree with you more," Sara said.
"And I assure you SO's wellbeing is at the forefront of my mind."
She paused. "So, Joan, can I ask you…would you be willing to help
me on this?"
    Joan shifted in her seat, fluffing up a
pillow to lean on next to her. "How so?" she asked, not wanting to
jump to any conclusions.
    "Well…" it was obvious that Sara was afraid
to ask. "I can do the proposal on my own. It will be a lot of
legwork that I would have to do on my own time, but I could manage
it. However, if the plan is approved—"
    Joan sighed, though she was careful not to
do it into the phone. She didn't want to discourage Sara, but at
the same time, she did not want to lead her on. Joan would have
loved to jump right