Come Out and Play

Odyssey “Falls” into Action

Back into the community we go, joining the Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation Community Centers for the 2nd annual "Worldwide Day of Play". The civic event takes place October 6^th, 2012 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Worldwide Day of Play is an annual event designed to encourage kids and parents to turn off the television and play, especially outdoors. “The event was first shown on October 2, 2004 on Nickelodeon…The event is designed as a finale for Nick's six-month long “Let's Just Play” campaign. In addition, Nick.com would also have special features for children to learn how to stay active and healthy.”

Starting bright and early, 10:00am-2:00pm at Saracen Landing, the event will kick off to a spirited start, along with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and sponsorship by MLB and Pine Bluff native Torii and Katrina Hunter. Join us as we enjoy a fun filled day of play! Odyssey Concierge continues its dedication to community, family, health and fitness.

 

A Summer to Remember

This summer Odyssey Concierge CEO Jerricka Kelly took on the summer challenge of organizing and operating in a phenomenal summer program at the Chester Hynes Recreation Center in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
This program gave local children a summer learning experience they will never forget. Incorporated into the summer experience was the Arts in Motion Summer Enrichment Program, designed to meet the many needs of all student participants by providing a viable learning atmosphere that offered a fun, safe, and healthy environment conducive for learning. 

One of the main objectives of Arts in Motion Summer Enrichment Program was to expose the children to new experiences via educational encounters, cultural enrichment and physical fitness and nutrition. The ultimate goal of the program is to enhance the overall transition from youth to young adults.

This summer program took tremendous community effort including the Trinity Feeding Program which partnered with the program and provided 2 meals a day for the children breakfast, and lunch. In addition, Dr. Carol Beeman mentor of Program Director Laura Hildreth played a vital role in planning curriculum and project coordination. Other vital camp participants included: Community Centers Education Coordinator, Joyce Suggs, Summer Program Educational Coordinator, Dela Lee, Certified life-time educator Alona Fontenette, Certified educator Mary Craig, and all of the remaining staff was crucial to the success of the Summer Program.

According to the National Summer Learning Association, inactive children “do forget over the summer”. Moreover, many economically disadvantage students are more like to have summer learning loss due to the lack of summer programing which not only stimulate them physically but also mentally. One thing is for sure, at the Chester Hynes Community Center there was never a dull moment for the young participants. Their schedules where filled with activities which included: Presidential Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Fishing, Archery, Ball Room, Tap and Praise Dancing, Arts & Crafts, Music, Community Service Projects, weekly field trips skating, bowling, movies, library, water park, and touring of Heifer Village International.

Jerricka Kelly, MBA of Odyssey Concierge was instrumental in obtaining additional funds for Team Hunter a group that was created for young people from 13 to 15 years old. Jerricka also served as a mentor and coordinated projects such as: Neighbor to Neighbor and Heifer International. She also procured motivational speakers including Nequetta Alford, MBA, NCAA baseball coach and great friend of Torii Hunter, Carlos James, and  Sgt. Yohance Brunson from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, Tri-County Drug Task Force. In addition, Jerricka coordinated a fun day for the campers which included Sgt. Ray Faucette from the Army National Guard, who set up rock-wall for the kids, and Lt. Harold Clark from the Pine Bluff Fire Department that brought the smoke house and educated the kids on fire safety. 

As a self-esteem motivational activity Jerricka introduced the students to a program founded in Dallas, entitled “The Person I Choose to Be” where all campers created vision boards. The vision board serves as a visual reminder of possibilities of ones’ dreams and goals.

The culmination of a great summer was The Grand Finale Production which included the children teaching the audience “hello” in ten different languages, mini drum-lime, the lost art tap dancing to the A-train,  Ball Room dancing to Michael Jacksons “Butterfly”, Poetry by Maya Angelou, spoken-word by Ronni the Poet, Praise Dancing and Singing.

 In addition, The Grand Finale Production included an Art Gallery displaying art projects completed over nine weeks including; self- image drawings, building homes out of milk cartons, vision boards, and paintings all created by the summer program children/up and coming artist!

The community received the entire program, including The Grand Finale with extreme pride! “Many parents mentioned that out all the other camps that their children had participated in “Arts in Motion Summer Enrichment Program” was the most cultural and exposed their children to new concepts.” Kelly stated, noting the overall success of the event.

The anticipation of summer 2013 promises of full summer of intellectual enhancement for the students, more field trips to enrich learning and a bigger and better, event more exciting Grand Finale.

Odyssey Concierge and Team Hunter are proud to have been an integral part of such an inspiring summer program.

 

Managing Your Second Life

Double Lives

Most people these days lead double lives---the good kind. Business men by day are small business entrepreneurs by night, following their passions. A full-time nurse is also a little league coach and a college professor plays jazz at night.

For many a 9-5 is no longer an identity and with the second lives people tend to lead comes the need for time management.

Managing time is of the utmost importance if you want to be the one to do and have it all. Skillful time management can give your life organize balance. Bad time management can lead you on a wild course of chaos, events over lapping, arriving too early or too late---pandemonium!

Resources to successful time management

There are solutions to your time management solutions:

Undotherest.com offers time management apps for your phone to keep track of your busy schedule.

If you are a visual learner, consider this article from SmallBusinessTrends.com which offers a mind map as a solution for the busy business owner.

SavvySugar.com offers more common sense than advice including planning in advance and being realistic about over-loading your schedule.

Odyssey Concierge is dedicated to organizing your schedule and assisting in managing your daily business routine to ensure that you are being the most successful you can be.

Odyssey Concierge – your life, simplified.

Fulfilling Your Non-Profit Start Up Dream

dyssey Concierge is constantly looking to for information to benefit our clients. Non-profit start up is just one of the areas in which we assist in simplifying the lives of our clients who wish to give back to their communities.

A recent article on SmallBusinessTrends.com by Business.USA.gov provides “8 Essential Steps to Starting a Non-Profit Organization”:

~Define your Mission

~Research your Niche

~Write a Business Plan

~Set Up a Board

~Incorporate Your Non-Profit And Register It With Legal Entities

~Incorporate Options for Hybrid Businesses/Non-Profits

~Start Fundraising

~Leverage Government Grants and other Recourses for Non-profits.

These eight simple and well elaborated steps are the essential components to establishing an effective and successful non-profit organization. Creating a way to give back and improve a community, in the end can benefits everyone involved, it just takes a time and serious effort to get your idea off the ground.

This is where Odyssey Concierge is able to step in and assist with non-profit start up. We not only simplify your life, but clarify and bring to life your dreams to make this world a better place, one non-profit organization at a time.www.odysseyconcierge.com

An Enriching Summer

OC –Who, Where , What?

Odyssey Concierge CEO, Jerricka Kelly continues her spirit of giving by spending a portion of her summer in Pine Bluff, Arkansas at the Chester Hynes Community Center. In its first year of operation, the summer camp is a new concept which incorporates art and physical activity too, this is a brilliant and proactive way to get the creativity flowing. Another unique aspect of the program is that while most summer programs accept kids up to12, Team Hunter enables kids from ages 4-15 to participate.

Why? It’s all about new experiences.

Not only do the children enjoy the physical activities during their time at camp, they also take educational field trips and are being introduced to foreign language acquisition.

Jerricka states that, “The main objective is to expose the children to new experiences and learning opportunities which will enhance their confidence and ability to become successful members of society. The program promotes learning education, character development, discipline and great sportsmanship. We strive to provide life skills that will enable them to make positive choices.” 

Building Foundations

One of the goals of the camp is to provide quality instructors with character and skill to teach and have a positive impact on each participant. The camp counselors were hand picked out of 200 applicants thus all teachers who are in charge of instructing the children are Christian educators and coaches who use real life skills, and experiences to motivate and teach. College students who also happen to be college athletes, were also recruited to assist throughout the summer. The program strives to builds spiritual and social foundation as well by incorporating speakers such as religious leaders, city officials, police officers, counselors, educators and more.

Partnerships that Count

It has taken a lot of support to make the Summer Camp Enrichment Program engaging and effective for the kids.  Thanks to Torii and Katrina Hunter  -Team Hunter, and Odyssey Concierge/ The Person I Choose to Be, who have endeavored to make the summer in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, fun and filled with outstanding learning moments.  

Is Your Success Showing?

Are you managing all of your calls, bookings, media and appearances, on your on? Is your personal assistant so swamped with the fruits of your success that you haven’t seen her in a week? Perhaps it is time to upgrade to a publicist, someone to take the pressure off of you and your assistant and help you continue to build your career.
What is a Publicist?

Publicist: a person responsible for publicizing a product, person or company or to further elaborate, one whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure. No matter how you define the role, a publicist is there for fulfill the many roles that success can extend to your already demanding lifestyle.

 Odyssey Concierge maintains the expert ability to execute publicist services in a professional and trustworthy manner. Our focus is representing our clients to the fullest extent of our ability and going above and beyond to guarantee total success in whatever endeavor your career.

Time on Your Hands?

  There used to be a time when a personal assistant was all you needed to help maintain and balance work and home, but with demand comes more responsibility. If your personal assistant is a valuable asset to your success then you need that person right by your side to continue assisting with the business end of your life. Joel Libava writes “As a time-starved entrepreneur, and consumer myself, I am certainly willing and able to pay for some services that will save me time. The other thing I look for is a service that will give me more of my quality time back. Quality time for me is defined as the time I spend at my child’s basketball games, or the time spent going to an afternoon matinée with my wife and friends, as examples.” (Help for the time-starved: Service Franchises)
Enter a new catch phrase: “timed starved”. Does this fit your life? Do you always seem to run out of time trying to put everything you need to do into one day? This is especially true for people who have demanding schedules due to their 9-5 and beyond. Having a full schedule means that there needs to be at least 2 possibly 3 duplicates of yourself just to accomplish your business obligations.
What about the other side of your life? Your home, special events, or family and friends coming into town? What about the non-profit you have started up or that you work diligently for; who is there to help you sustain?
It is at this point that Odyssey Concierge steps in and takes over, your life becomes “simplified” as our dedicated and knowledgeable team continues the daily operations of your life. We understand the needs and concerns of our clients and strive to bring order and organization to every aspect of their dynamic lifestyle.