Being the founding executive director of PS I Love You, the wine grape advocacy group for Petite Sirah (aka Pet), has taught me a lot. Some notables:

• I’ve helped to incorporate the group.
• Gone through the rigors of having it become a 501-c6 non-profit.
• Trademarked Dark and Delicious PETITE SIRAH™.
• Understand that if we don’t have an annual wine and food event, this group could quite possibly fade away, like other wine non-profits have done as of late.
• Get that many brands need and appreciate that extra marketing branch for their wines… the one that brings consumers to the table, without having them leave the comfort of their own neighborhoods.

I sometimes feel like the little red hen who had to go through so many steps to get to the bread at the end of the process… finding the wheat, harvesting it, threshing it, etc…. to finally be eating it. Well, the bread is finally made, ten years later, and I couldn’t be more excited. Here is what I just wrote to the members of PS I Love You, to which there’s been an overwhelming Hip Hip Hurray from nearly everyone. I’m not that surprised, but what I didn’t know is that so many others feel exactly as I do… Cause marketing adds a raison d’être, beyond “Here’s the wine, what do you think?”

D&D has a beneficiary… finally, after all of these years… Pet has a pet project

A few years ago, Kent Rasmussen (Kent Rasmussen Winery) was at Dark & Delicious and we were talking about the auction items. He asked me who our non-profit was as a beneficiary, and I told him that PS I Love You was the non-profit (as a 501 C6). When dues only bring in $18,000 a year, you can see where this thinking would come from… trying to make it all work on a slim margin is next to impossible, but we make it possible.

Still, I’ve always wanted to do more, and have been thinking hard about what partner would make sense. Cause marketing has certain principles, mainly based on how two entities can come together, for the benefit of each. Two weekends ago, I took a day off. (Yup! I got one!) As I was watching a movie, each advertising segment began with an ad from the SPCA. It was very hard to watch, because the animals had the saddest looks on their faces. (I’ve always had pets, from the day I left home as an adult.) [Below left to right: My rescued cats ~ Buddy and Big Foot. Big foot is our polydactyl cat]

As I watched the ad I was thinking, “I’ve already got two cats that I’ve saved, how can I help more?” Then… it hit me… Cause marketing. Ten percent of the proceeds from the D&D auction will be going to the East Bay SPCA… as our “PET PROJECT.”

I’m sure you get the PET pun, and I’m so relieved…

Thanks, Kent Rasmussen, for getting me going in this direction. Although it’s taken time to organize.

So, I contacted the East Bay SPCA, who is also delighted to have the union created. This year’s silent auction is now much more meaningful; and, I know the people who come to Dark & Delicious… This is going to make for a lot of happy hearts.