Pre-Event: Miracle Babies 5k Walk/Run
Nov 04, 2011 - Lenna
This Sunday November 13th the Miracle Babies foundation will be holding their Annual 5k Walk/Run at Mariner's Point in Mission Bay Park. Registration costs $30 and the proceeds go to benefit families with infants in neonatal intensive care. Kids age 12 and under can participate free of charge. Following the walk there will be activities for kids, live music, food, drinks, and even a flash mob. Click here to see the video for the flash mob and learn the moves before this weekend!
Miracle Babies works to provide education, support, and financial assistance to families with newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit (NCIU). More than 500,000 babies are born prematurely every year, and their families find themselves faced with unexpected expenses and difficulties. In such a critical time, it's important that parents and other family members can spend time with their babies, especially in the event of a long hospital stay. In the face of dealing with this critical situation and the uncertainty that arises, many parents have to sacrifice their income and jobs in order to be with their children. Miracle Babies seeks to make this difficult time easier through providing support in the form of baby supplies, clothing, diapers and formula, assistance with rent and groceries,childcare for siblings, transportation costs, and lodging costs for out-of-town family members. In this way the foundation helps to take care of basic needs so that families can focus on their children.
To be a part of this great cause, register here or take a look at the foundation's website for more information.
Recap: YWCA San Diego's Walk a Mile against Domestic Violence
Oct 28, 2011 - Ploy P.
Article as seen on Ask Miss A:
Last week, on Thursday, October 20th, hundreds of heels drummed the streets of Downtown, San Diego as men and women wore their finest five inch heels and walked a mile to raise awareness against domestic violence for the YWCA of San Diego’s second annual Walk a Mile in her Shoes event. Spott was proud to be a first-time sponsor this event to raise awareness for a serious cause that can affect any female, despite social and economic class.
KUSI’s Brad Perry made a touching point that while participants giggled at their male counterparts stuffing their toes into pointy shoes, this light-hearted event was a great way to bring awareness to the very serious issue of domestic violence and how it affects our community. He brought on the San Diego Police department on stage, honored the sponsors, and held a “Sexy Heels” competition, all while sporting a serious hot pink stiletto.
The walk began promptly after, where onlookers stopped and stood agape watching men in suits, men in furry robes, and men in gym clothes staggering down Fifth Avenue and Market Street in stilettos, wedges, and even thigh-high PVC boots.
“On the scale of one to ten on how much this hurts, my feet hurts ten out of ten,” said Anthony, one of our Business Development team members. “A mile isn’t so bad considering victims of domestic violence suffer for much longer and without being heard.”
Participants were rewarded at the post-party event hosted by Hotel Solamar’s Lounge Six where they received massages, music, food and drinks. The reception also included a raffle, awards, auction and more.
The $51, 912 proceeds raised from this event will go to support Becky’s House® and the individual’s journey from victim to survivor to achiever. The programs, services, and shelter provided by Becky’s House® will help more than 500 women and children who will have come from abusive homes.
To learn more about how you can help victims of domestic violence, please visit the YWCA San Diego’s website for more information. Real gentlemen can sigh with relief before they put on high heels for next year’s Walk a Mile in her Shoes event.
We had so much fun on behalf of our squished feet walking alongside real gentlemen who weren't ashamed of donning 6 inch stilettos that we're already prepping up our calves for next year. For photos of our Spott men in heels, have a giggle at our Facebook photo album here.
Frequently Emailed Question: Everyday Deal vs Featured Deal?
Oct 28, 2011 - Ploy P.
We've been getting some of the same questions in our inboxes so we'd like to give you an updated answer to all of your inquiries here before we change our FAQ page:
What is the difference between an "Everyday" deal and a "Featured" deal?
An "Everyday" deal does not have a time-limit for you to purchase it by like the "Featured" deal. Instead, "Everyday" deals will expire once all the coupons allocated to that deal have sold out.
Do the coupons ever expire?
Unlike Twinkies and cockroaches, every deal has an expiration date that can be found at the bottom of the coupon and the deal page. Even if the deal loses its promotional value, you can still redeem it at the price you originally paid as per stated by the gift certificate laws in your state.
How many people can I refer?
We encourage you to spread the word of Spott to as many souls as you can. We do not currently offer a monetary reward per referral, but sharing Spott deals to your friends will be rewarded via the karmic forces
How do I refer individual deals?
There is a Facebook, Twitter, and Email icon on the top right of every deal box where you can forward the individual deal to all your friends.
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We hope that's cleared up some of the questions we've been receiving this week. Again, if you want to access our Frequently Asked Questions, you may do so here. We will be updating them all shortly, so feel free to shoot us an email at info@spott.com.
Happy Birthday to our Business Development Manager, Jaime
Oct 17, 2011 - Ploy P.
Feliz Cumpleanos to our Business Development Manager and go-getter, Jaime.
We will be calling for a fiesta in the office once you come back from liaising with all the wonderful local businesses that partner with us at Spott and give back to charity.
Stay tuned for more in depth profiles of everyone in the Spott Team so you can finally put names to faces. With that in mind, have a wonderful Manic Monday.
Intern Locker: Learning to work with Deal Images
Oct 14, 2011 - Lenna
I've been doing behind-the-scenes work to bring you all the images for our daily deals, vendor and charity logos. You might not have guessed-but it's no easy task!
I'm always working to find pictures that best represent the deal itself, while showing it in a fun, colorful and appealing way. This can be frustrating at times, especially when the image resolution is just a little too small, but I am working around it to accurately represent all the businesses we work with. I've learned to be more creative in putting together images, and learning how to use all the cool functions of Photoshop to get images looking their best.
I've started putting more work into the vendor logos to get them looking their brightest and best as well. There was just an overkill of plain text on a white background, and it didn't do justice to the companies and the exciting products they offer. Of course the single trickiest thing about working with images for Spott is the unusual size. If you take a look, all our deal and logo photos are rectangular with a ratio of about 1:2. This can make it really hard to find good pictures, considering that pictures of people standing for clothing and gym membership ads are all oriented vertically.
I always appreciate a vendor more when their website or Facebook offers a great gallery with lots of high-quality, professional looking photographs to choose from. Here’s a shoutout to the TLC Pumpkin Patch, Indigenous Designs and the California Climbing Company for having great pages with awesome galleries and lots of photos to choose from.
Advertising is about more than just a captivating headline. A single picture speaks a thousand words.
Working on Gift Options for Spott
Oct 06, 2011 - Ploy P.
Today I received a comment from a customer who took the time to send me this email:
"It's ghetto that you don't offer a "gift" option to print a voucher that won't say the price on it, or the recipients name. and it'd be really cool if it also said the gift included a portion going to charity."
We are certainly taking your comment to heart and implementing a gift option in our system within the upcoming weeks.
However, for now, you can definitely send the coupon you bought as a gift to your gift-receiver via email, or you can print out the coupon and block out their name and price number. All the businesses need is the coupon code to activate your discount, so as long as you have that number marked, you are good to go. Hope this helps!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@spott.com.
Happy Birthday to our Dashing Leader, Nick
Oct 05, 2011 - Ploy P.
Happy Birthday to the Rubik's Cube expert, Webmaster and Co-Founder, Nick.
We're calling for a fiesta in the office and jiving with all our lime-green munchkins!
Stay tuned for more in depth profiles of everyone in the Spott Team so you can finally put names to faces. With that in mind, have a wonderful Hump Day!
Veg Week Recap by Ploy, the Compulsive Snacker
Oct 03, 2011 - Ploy P.
The Animal Protection and Rescue League's Veg Week started last week on Sunday, Sept 25th. What appeared to be a week-long torturous hiatus from meatballs, barbecued pork and fried chicken actually turned out to be a rewarding, fit-into-your-skinny jeans 7-day detox, and a lifestyle that's good for your diet, your furry friends, and the environment. A triple win situation we're so fond of at Spott!
After scouring the list of Vegetarian/Vegan friendly restaurants in San Diego and receiving 15% - 20% off discount coupons (another item we love!) from our Veg Pledge packages, we started off our week with an office lunch trip at one of our featured businesses, Evolution Fast Food. They were the ones who introduced us to the APRL organization in the first place! Presenting a healthy alternative to regular deep-fat-fried drive-throughs, it wasn't hard to fill up on sweet potato fries or delicious bean burger patties at this 5th Avenue joint. We came back to work without feeling the hum-drum slump that usually comes with an fat-filled stomach.
I also spent $30 this week on fresh greens and local produce to make myself homemade soups and salads for my meals. Finally learning how to manouvre around my kitchen properly and putting my oven to use. Pretty proud of my plant-friendly concoction here:
Quinoa Stuffed Roasted Acorn with Spinach
On Spott, we featured an Organics Raw Food snacks from Kaia Organics as one of our deals to honor our veggie-only eating friends. They even use agave syrup in their products making it cruelty-free for bustling bees everywhere. A great healthy alternative to the chemical-laden options we find in our office vending machines.
While I'm sad to see the end of Veg Week, I'm proud to say that our actions have helped save countless animals over the past week. There were over 1,200 San Diegans who participated in being vegetarian/vegan, including City Council members and first-time supporters. With all the insightful emails we received, talks we attended, and San Diego Veg heavens and grocery stores we visited, I can't thank the APRL enough for putting such a great program together. We finally met our daily vegetable and fruit servings and we've all been eating better for our waistlines.
Want more information on how to get involved for next year? Here's the Veg Pledge we took.
Supporting Education & Student Opportunities: Teaming up with Parent-Teacher Associations
Sep 30, 2011 - Lenna
Recently we’ve been contacting the Parent-Teacher Associations of local high schools and a few elementary schools, looking for new ways to engage the San Diego community. We've already had the chance to work with Rancho Bernardo High School and helped them to raise funds for their GradNite. We're hoping to continue the trend of supporting the efforts of PTA’s to offer things like scholarships, sponsored grad nights, and other events and programs to local students. Several of the schools we’re looking at are hoping to award scholarships to “outstanding seniors” to help them further their education. What better way to give back to the community than to support education?
Other schools are working to provide a Grad Night for graduating seniors to celebrate the end of high school in a safe, parent-chaperoned environment. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun! One school is planning to have rock climbing, zip lines, henna tattoos and casino games, playing for raffle tickets, not with actual money of course! The elementary schools are working to offer some cool things as well, like garden projects, fieldtrips, and teacher appreciation events. This is a wonderful opportunity for Spott because we can help the parents, teachers and students of local schools make all their great plans come true. We’re excited to hear back from these schools, and can’t wait to get started helping them fulfill their big plans. Check back with our website to learn more and see which schools we’ll be supporting. Who knows, it could be your old school!
A Walk to Remember
Sep 30, 2011 - Lenna
On Sunday October 2 our charity of the week, Isabella's Giraffe Club, will be hosting its annual Walk to Remember. The walk will be from 8:30 am to 11:30 am at Scripps Ranch Community Park. Isabella's Giraffe Club is a non-profit organization that works to provide care, educational resources, and emotional support for parents and families of infants in neonatal intensive care. The funds raised by this walk go to provide bereavement care packages for parents in the San Diego area who have just lost a baby.
The Walk to Remember is a gentle walk through the "Lollipop Garden" that honors each child. The event includes an outdoor memorial service and live music, and serves to honor and remember children who have been lost early in life and to help support the families they left behind. This year there will also be a silent auction with items such as gift certificates, gift baskets, and sports and entertainment memorabilia such as autographed items or tickets. If you would like to get involved, you can register for the event or contact Tammy Mulcahy to support the organization through a donation to the auction.
Also Congratulations to Angela Amoroso, Vice President of Isabella's Giraffe Club, on winning the 10news Leadership Award for her work with the organization. Click here to see the video.