Welcome to Eventfully Blonde, Jessica Sula's weekly blog about her experience being a summer intern for BRAVO!. We love our intern blogs and hope you enjoy following Jess!
Week 2
June 8-12, 2015
After a couple nights of experiencing D.C. bar life and a brunch to cure the weekend activities, it was back to BRAVO! for an eventful week, to say the least. This past week we took on yet another wonderful event, Going the Extra Mile for Whitman-Walker Health on Wednesday, June 10, 2015. This event was held to benefit Whitman Walker Health’s Legal Services Department.
Everything we did this week created a curiosity and excitement of how the event would come together and be executed – as well as how everyone would react and feel during this event. All the tasks for GTEM2015 kept me invested especially when first watching the video that included life changing stories of Whitman-Walker’s clients and staff that would be played for all of the guests. The anticipation for this video reveal lasted until the very moment it started during the event, which was just as chilling as the first time I watched it.
But lets rewind to the very beginning of the event day. Preparation began by loading photographs into the LongView Gallery, creating center pieces and making sure the atmosphere of the space was up to par with the event that was about to take place. Then, registration began and began fast. A great amount of people began to check in and proceed to enjoy themselves connecting with one another while viewing the beautiful gallery. Before I knew it, it was time for the program to take place. Each honoree that spoke gave such influential stories that were both touching and eye opening. Soon after, it was time for the video reveal. I was lucky enough to be amongst the crowd and watch as some grabbed Kleenex while being impacted by the many stories of how Whitman-Walker helped them make their struggles into triumphs – this being the reaction I expected.
Trying to describe my experience of this event into words does not put it to justice. It is an honor to be surrounded by so many of those who dedicate their lives to such an amazing cause. These people work endlessly to continue to support the LGBTQ community in multiple ways, and they are succeeding greatly. Being at both of these events the past two weeks have truly made a difference in my life and has broadened my knowledge greatly about this amazing community, which I could not be more grateful for.
These past two weeks at BRAVO! have taught me a lot about “event life” that I was not aware of before. One thing I have realized is that pursuing a career within the event industry is something I am truly interested in, which I was not exactly sure of before. So far, I realized that there is such thing as having a job you look forward to coming to everyday and that there is also such thing as a happy work environment where there is collaborative (and successful) team work. Not only is daily work enjoyable, but working outside of the office at these amazing events is rewarding as well. So far, so good – and I can only see it getting better from here.
As always, cheers to whatever comes next!