twestival local - Tweet.Meet.Give. - March 24, 2011

The first Cedar Valley Twestival (in my humble opinion) was an amazing success!

We had about 25 people come out to enjoy food, drinks, cupcakes, music and the company of friends.

We also joined Twestival's 24 hour, worldwide live stream event, showing off the Cedar Valley Twestival to the rest of the world from 7-7:15.

But the night was really all about supporting the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. I was so impressed by the generosity of everyone involved. Several people who couldn't come to the event sent food or money to be donated. And it was so amazing to see so many people walk into The Cellar carrying bags of food!

Thanks to your generosity, we raised $315 and collected 50 pounds of food for NEIFB!

Our online donation page will be up through March 31, so if you were unable to donate, or know someone else who would still like to donate, go ahead and do so online.

We also have about 10 #CVTweetup tshirts left in sizes S-L. The cost is $15, with part of that money going to NEIFB. If you're interested in grabbing one, DM or email us. cvtweetup@gmail.com

Twestival was all about providing food and money for NEIFB to operate. But it's important to remember to give our time, too! NEIFB Volunteer Coordinator Patrick Bird talked about opportunities like Combat Hunger, where you can give your time to support the food bank. You can e-mail him if you're interested: pbird@feedingamerica.org

Congratulations to all who won our great door prizes! I tried to keep a list of the winners but lost track about half way through! We had so many amazing prizes, and you all deserved to win for your generosity.

A special thank you to Candy Nardini (@CandyNardini) for her time, input and resources to make the Cedar Valley Twestival a reality. Thanks to Nick Helten (@nhelten) for designing our #CVTweetup t-shirts and giving the Cedar Valley Tweetup a logo for future use! To The Cellar (@CuCellar) - thanks for letting us take over your space with all our equipment, cupcakes and t-shirts; thanks for providing tape and extension cords; thanks to your staff for helping us set-up and then figuring out our orders as we all moved from spot to spot. Thanks to TargetClick Marketing (@DougDrees) for sponsoring the CV Twestival and supporting NEIFB. Thanks to DJ Stevenly for playing all night, and even bringing in some extra donations and door prizes. Thanks to Gallagher-Bluedorn (@GBPAC), KWWL (@KWWL), Tweet-Its (@Tweet_Its), and Moo Roo/Hansen's Dairy for donating door prizes.

We'll be watching for an announcement from the Twestival organizing committee on a 2012 date, and we'll pass it along when we see it. Let us know if you're interested in helping us plan for next year - we want it to be even bigger and better!

And follow @CV_Tweetup and #CVTweetup for updates on our usual April tweetup.

Thank you!

Remember that a donation of money or non-perishable food items or purchasing a #CVTweetup t-shirt at the event tonight will make you eligible for one of our great door prizes!

* $10 gift card - The Other Place
* $10 gift card - Barmuda
* 2 tickets to this weekend's piano performance at Gallagher-Bluedorn (x2)
* Tweet-Its
* KWWL coffee mug, key chain, mouse pad, notepad and mini football
* Cake balls from Scratch Bakery

We'll be giving them away throughout the night. Thanks to everyone who helped buy or donated door prizes!

It's Twestival day!

And events are already underway in other parts of the world.

A reminder that the Cedar Valley Twestival to benefit the Northeast Iowa Food Bank is at The Cellar in downtown Waterloo from 6-9 p.m. TONIGHT!

We'll have a DJ, cupcakes from Scratch Bakery to celebrate the one year anniversary of the #CVTweetup, door prizes for anyone who donates to the food bank, and #CVTweetup t-shirts designed by Nick Helten for sale with proceeds going to the NEIFB.

We'll have bins for non-perishable food items and a drop-box for cash/check donations. Or you can donate online using the link the upper right hand corner.

Food is something that everyone deserves to have, but sadly some find themselves unable to provide. Remember that NEIFB can take a $1 donation and turn it into almost $12 worth of food for people living in northeast Iowa.

You can watch the live stream as it rolls from time zone to time zone today. We'll be joining the live stream and sharing our Twestival and charity with the world at 7:00 p.m. tonight! Be there!

Twestival is happening in more than 150 cities around the world on Thursday, and to bring us all together, the international organizing committee is planning to break a world record.

Twestival will live stream for 24 hours and attempt to break the record for "most charities featured in a live stream."

Out of more than 150 cities, only about 50 will be featured during the live stream - AND WE ARE ONE OF THEM!

We get a 15 minute window to introduce our town and our charity from 7-7:15 p.m. If you can only stop by for a few minutes - this is the time to come!

See you Thursday!

Happy Monday everyone!

Today Twitter turns 5 years old! And it seems timely that the #CVTweetup group is also set to celebrate our first birthday this month!

We're celebrating by joining a worldwide movement to give back to our community. We hope you'll join us on Thursday to celebrate with some birthday cupcakes, enjoy some live music and raise money/food for the Northeast Iowa Food Bank!

We've set up an event on Facebook so you can RSVP and invite your friends!

And since birthdays are a great time to look back at the last year, here are some pictures from our previous tweetups.

See you Thursday!

The very first tweetup - March 2010 at the Other Place on University Avenue!

May 2010 tweetup - the former Roux Orleans/Bourre Lounge in downtown Waterloo.

Awesome weather for an August 2010 outdoor tweetup at Beck's on the Hill in Cedar Falls.

June 2010 tweetup at Mulligan's in Cedar Falls.

And the rest are from our civic tweetup at the Northeast Iowa Food Bank, also in June 2010. Last year we gave our time, now we need to give food and money to help support this crucial community service.