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10 years in the making, Bread’s new building on Good Hope road in DC is finally complete. This is thrilling news for the Bread team, but it left them with a little dilemma. How do you host a ribbon cutting in the middle of the COVID-19 quarantine?
Bread’s for the City’s ingenious team put their heads together and came up with a plan to host a virtual tour of their new facility and turn it into an online fundraising event. Email invites were sent out and Sabra added a page to their website for the upcoming event.
The live stream was a technical feat of epic proportions. The entire hour long event was streamed live on YouTube and on Bread’s website. A camera crew dashed up and down elevators with CEO George A. Jones in tow, to film the live shots throughout the building. In between live shots, the video crew queued pre-filmed interviews featuring Bread’s staff, clients, and board members. During the live stream, Bread’s communication team took to social media and posted viewers’ comments on the video feed. The Sabra team monitored the website and special live chat feature, so attendees could leave comments and talk amongst each other throughout the video tour.
While the crew on site had to be completely silent for filming, the web was alive with activity and chatter amongst the virtual attendees.
The entire Bread Family was in attendance! Donors, volunteers, clients, and board members had all come together online to join in on the celebration. On the live chat feed, people were cheering for Bread left and right. Old friends said hi to one another, attendees sent out shoutouts to the people in the video, individuals announced their donation pledges, and everyone congratulated Bread for the City for their major accomplishment.
For good reason, too. Bread’s new 27,650 square foot Building on Good Hope, built in the heart of Anacostia, will provide a new medical clinic, food pantry, gym, dental clinic, and job training center to the Southeast DC community.
Bread for the City’s goal was to raise $20,000, which they achieved before the live stream had even started!
During the event, a donation link was made available across platforms. Bread’s development team gave live updates throughout the show to let everyone know how much had been raised.
At the end of the hour long event, Bread for the City had raised $67,136!
We’d like to thank Ashley, Lina, Kristin, Koz, Kenrick and the rest of the Bread for the City team for putting together such a special event. You did an amazing job and it is a privilege to work with wonderful people like you!
Thank you to everyone who donated and attended Bread’s Virtual Grand Opening. The money raised will be used to equip their new building’s free clinic, open food market, gym, law office, and job training center.
If you missed Bread’s event, you can still watch the video and make a donation to Bread for the City’s Good Hope Building Fund. The Grand Opening was a major success, but Bread still has a long way to go before opening their doors to the public.
