'Bigger, Better' First Night Bradford to Return

The First Night Bradford Committee is excited to announce that on Friday, January 16th, the final reinstatement paperwork was sent out for the 501(c)3 and should be returned within 90 days. This process could not have been completed without the assistance of Jim Smith and Sherry Deeter of Smith, Best, and Stoneking CPA. We appreciate the time and effort that went into this progression and look forward to reinstatement of our 501(c)3 tax exempt status.

Jim Tingley, newly appointed Chairman of the First Night Bradford Committee, has recently taken over and under his direction and approval of the committee, several modifications have been made to the structure of the organization. Functional Teams have been established to focus on the several different categories of the New Years’ Cultural and Arts Festival.

Team categories include Finance, Entertainment, Advertising and Public Relations, Technology, Venues and Vendors, Public Works and City, and the Finale Team. These teams will function semi-autonomously, headed by a Team Leader, working alongside the main FNB committee to complete responsibilities necessary under the duties assigned to each individual team and within the assigned team budget. Starting in February we will begin the process of contacting venues and securing locations to host the variety of acts. We want to emphasize that this is not just a FNB Committee event, but it is a “Community Event” and needs community wide participation. We look at the organizations that will serve as venues as partners in this endeavor and hope that those approached will be excited as we are to participate in this event.

After we receive notice that our 501c3 status has been reinstated, we plan to kick off our Annual Campaign. We anticipate this to be in May or early June. This is a critical function for our committee as we seek to secure funding from both our corporate and individual sponsors for our 2016 First Night. Because we coming off a missed year, we want to make this year’s event bigger and better than ever and that means a fairly large budget. This will only be possible through the generous contributions of our corporate sponsors and the community at large.

We would like to sincerely thank everyone who has had a hand in making the past two decades of, First Night Bradford such an amazing experience. We look forward to making the 2016 First Night Bradford a quality event for everyone. As a volunteer driven organization, we are constantly looking for individuals to join our committee. If you or someone you know is interested in joining any of the teams, please do not hesitate to contact us, as we are always looking for driven volunteers to better our event.

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