“We can also help parents find other charities and organizations to help with their child and their financial situation,” Jess said, “but when a family is overwhelmed by having a child with a serious health issue, it’s easy for the needs of their other children to get overlooked, especially the little ones.”
“It takes a village,” Olivia said.
Jess grinned. “Exactly. Let me introduce you to some people.”
There were whirlwind introductions, since the meeting would be starting, but Olivia didn’t sweat it. She was pretty good at making names-to-faces connections and, while taking notes in her notebook during the meeting, she’d jot down some observations about each person, which would help cement the hasty introductions in her mind. Thanks to Kelsey’s notes, Olivia already knew that George and Ella Orfanakis were in charge. Her parents had started the charity when Ella needed a liver transplant as a child and they’d struggled to maintain a sense of normalcy for her younger brother, Frankie, who was also on the board.
The last person to meet was across the room, and Olivia doubted there would be time for introductions, since George was taking his seat at the head of the massive conference table. But when the man turned to grab a cookie from a tray and she could see slightly more than his profile, she sucked in a breath and clenched her fingers around her notebook.
It was the firefighter from the elevator.Derek.The man she’d been spending more than a little mental time with each night as she fell asleep, because he was a safe fantasy. She was never supposed to see him again.
“And that guy scoping out the baked goods is Derek Gilman. He’s a firefighter, actually. He works with my husband, Rick.”
Gullotti. That’s where Olivia had heard the name. Rick Gullotti was one of the men she’d talked to briefly after being pulled out of the elevator.
Praying her face wasn’t as hot as it felt, she forced a smile. “We’ve met, actually. Derek and I were briefly stuck in an elevator together and your husband helped get us out.”
“Wait, you’re—” Jess stopped talking for a second, her gaze flicking to Derek and back before she spoke again. “I heard about that. I’m glad it wasn’t anything more serious.”
“Me, too,” she said, hoping her response wasn’t too wooden, but she was too busy trying to figure out what was happening to care all that much.
Seeing Derek was a shock. And Jess’s reaction was odd, as if Olivia had been the topic of somebody’s conversation. But most of all, her own response to seeing the firefighter was downright alarming.
She probably shouldn’t have spent quite so much time remembering how good his hands had felt on her skin. And she definitely shouldn’t have been imagining her back pressed up against the elevator with her legs wrapped around the man.
He chose that moment to turn in her direction. His eyes met hers and he froze with a cookie halfway to his mouth. Olivia’s cheeks felt hot again and she gave him what she hoped was a polite,nice to see you againsmile. Derek returned the smile, and then started across the room toward her.
“Let’s get started,” George said in a loud voice, startling her.
Derek didn’t look away from her as she obediently took a seat, and for a long and strangely nerve-racking moment, she was afraid he was going to sit next to her. Considering what she’d imagined him doing to her last night, she wasn’t sure her nerves could handle that.
But he stayed on his side of the table and took a bite of his cookie while George called the meeting to order. Of course he started by introducing their newest member, even though she’d already met everybody one-on-one, and thanking her for her involvement. Once the spotlight was off her, Olivia opened the leather cover and sifted through the notebook inserts crammed into it until she found the slim one she’d added for Village Hearts.
Prepared to take notes, including adding a question mark to anything she needed to catch up on, she listened to George go over some statistics from the last month.
It didn’t take but a few minutes before she realized Derek sitting across from her might be worse than if he’d sat next to her. He was in her peripheral vision and she was keenly aware that he was watching her while he listened and ate his cookie. Not staring, exactly, but he spent a lot more time looking at her than he did looking at George.
She might have assumed he vaguely recognized her and was trying to place where he knew her from if not for the slightly weird way Jess had reacted when she said she’d been stuck in the elevator with him.
Wait, you’re—And then the quick glance at Derek as she cut off her sentence.
“I don’t feel like we did a great job at promoting the auction fundraiser last year,” Ella was saying, and Olivia jerked her attention back to the business at hand. It wasn’t like her to get distracted like that. Of course, she wasn’t usually presented with a distraction like Derek while she was trying to focus.
“I feel like there was a disconnect in the images we put out,” Ella continued. “The poster made it clear the charity supports children, which is great. But for this particular event—a dinner and dancing while auctioning off some very nice items—I feel like we need to be targeting wallets more than hearts, I think. It’s hard to explain. We had a good turnout, but I’d like to attract some bigger spenders.”
“There’s a wide range of items, though,” Derek said, and Olivia’s skin tingled at the sound of his voice. She’d imagined that voice whispering some pretty dirty things in her ear since the last time she saw him. “We don’t want to make it look like such a high-end event that the core community doesn’t bother showing up.”
“That’s a good point,” one of the other women said. “We want to appeal to people with deep pockets who aren’t necessarily involved with Village Hearts, but it’s important to celebrate the everyday people who do the work, too.”
“I would suggest splitting your marketing campaign,” Olivia said, and all heads swiveled to her, but she kept her gaze on George and Ella at the end of the table. “It sounds like your promotion for last year was considered successful, so I’d continue that. Make marketing materials geared toward the children and some of the more fun, affordable items going up for auction, along with a date night for a good-cause theme. Those are the images your core community, as Derek called them, will be sharing on their social media accounts.”
Ella was nodding and nobody jumped in, so she kept going. “At the same time, I’d set up some promotions specifically targeted toward people who support similar charities, along with donors to local hospitals and others whose donations come from their accountants’ advice rather than the heart. A more elegant advertisement, pushing the dinner and any high-end auction items. Rather than the word-of-mouth, organic sharing the Village Hearts community and their friends and family will generate, this marketing would be driven by keywords and very specific ad targeting.”
When she was finished speaking, nobody said anything for a moment and Olivia forced herself not to fidget while she waited for feedback from the rest of the room. She didn’t think she’d stepped on anybody’s toes, but it wouldn’t matter. Once she made a commitment to something, she followed through, so she wouldn’t hold back ideas or information to save anybody’s ego.
“Wow.” George leaned back in his chair, tapping his pen on the table. “That sounds great. I’ve gotta be honest, though. I didn’t understand all of that, and I think we did okay with Facebook last year, but I don’t think any of us really know the level of stuff you’re talking about.”
“I have a social media and marketing manager on my staff,” Olivia said. “McGovern Consulting would be happy to donate two hours per week of her time, as well as an hour of my assistant’s, to help with promotion for the auction. It doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but they’re very good and very fast.”
