This semester, I was given the amazing opportunity to work with Fill Your Bucket List Foundation. Fill Your Bucket List Foundation is a nonprofit organization located in Cary, North Carolina. Its mission is to grant the wishes of adults battling cancer to increase their happiness and quality of life. Fill Your Bucket List Foundation covers all logistic and financial costs of the wish, so recipients can focus on relaxing and spending time with their loved ones.

            I have greatly enjoyed working with this foundation. My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor and I have lost a great number of family members to this horrible disease. I love everything Fill Your Bucket List Foundation stands for and I greatly admire the work they do for those with cancer.

            Executive Director Marie Otto told my group that we would be assisting with public relations and social media drafts for their annual fundraising event, the Bucket Bash. Personally, I was responsible for writing multiple email drafts about the event and creating accompanying social media posts. I drafted an email about why individuals should donate to the Fill Your Bucket List Foundation, one describing a recent wish recipient’s trip, and finally an email about the logistics of the Bucket Bash event. I feel very confident in the work I provided the organization with and hope they will use my drafts when the emails are officially sent out to their newsletter recipients.

            This experience greatly contributed to my educational and professional experience. Being able to write official emails for Fill Your Bucket List Foundation has shown me the detail and time required to create professional and influential correspondence. This skill will aid me in future internships and other endeavors. I also hope to work with a nonprofit one day, so working with Fill Your Bucket List Foundation has given me a multitude of insights about how nonprofit organizations are organized and run.

            The most valuable part of working with Fill Your Bucket List Foundation was knowing that I was making a difference. This foundation stands for something I truly believe in and it is comforting to know that the work I did is going towards helping grant the wishes of cancer patients. While the entire experience was extremely rewarding, I do wish I could have done more work for the foundation. The most challenging aspect of my service-learning experience was the lack of previous information. We were not given any guidelines when writing the email drafts, so it was difficult to know what was expected and what the foundation wanted. Creating detailed outlines and stating expectations would be my only recommendations of what the organization should provide groups in future years.  

            Regarding Fill Your Bucket List Foundation’s current public relations efforts, there are only minimal changes I would suggest. The foundation does an excellent job of posting on social media platforms but needs to improve their reach and follower numbers. Additionally, the website needs to be updated, so visitors can easily and efficiently find what they are looking for. Small changes like these can greatly influence Fill Your Bucket List Foundation’s success and brand recognition.

            I would suggest that the Carolina Center for Public Service continue to work with Fill Your Bucket List in future years. It is an important organization in North Carolina and provides students with excellent real-world experience.

            The work I did for Fill Your Bucket List Foundation has been personally rewarding and I hope to continue my involvement with the foundation moving forward.