Thrive Awards
The First Annual Future Ready Five & Franklin County RISE Thrive Awards was a celebration that recognized early childhood educators in Franklin County, and took place on June 30th, 2025 at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio.
GOALS
To host a memorable event honoring the participants of Future Ready Five’s community impact program, as well as the Franklin County RISE IDEA Fund recipients, using the event to leverage the success of the program with community partners & donors.
SERVICES
Event Planning (budget of $10,000)
Hiring Vendors
Securing In-Kind Donations
Run-of-Show
Coordinating with Partners & Speakers
Ordering Decor
Assembling Floral Arrangements
Managing Guest List
SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES
Instagram: @futurereadyfive
Facebook: @FutureReadyFive
A Cause Worth Celebrating
Future Ready Five is a non-profit organization serving Central Ohio that focuses on preparing children in underserved communities for kindergarten. Through their Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative, they partner with local child care centers to screen children ages 3 to 5 years old and provide critical literacy interventions. The teachers are required to attend monthly professional development workshops and also receive one-on-one coaching. The goal of the Thrive Awards Ceremony was to uplift the centers and educators whose children had seen the most growth over the course of the year.
Videography by Good Looks Media
Photography by Ian Alexander
For this particular event, it was important to me that the attendees felt that they were being uplifted and celebrated from the moment they arrived. After securing an in-kind donation from the Franklin Park Conservatory, we were able to host the ceremony in their beautiful Palm House.
Future Ready Five’s Board of Directors co-chair and Franklin County Commissioner President, Erica Crawley, agreed to deliver opening remarks and gladly distributed awards to recipients.
For the takeaways, guests could choose from an array of children’s books on the table that matched the garden theme of the conservatory. We also placed stickers on the backs of programs as a giveaway for the floral arrangements.
To stay within budget, I purchased bulk flowers from Trader Joe’s and arranged them myself to create the table center pieces.
Event Announcement
SOCIAL MEDIA and WEB
Responsible for copywriting on social media posts, email announcement, and blog post after the event. Using a combination of event photography and video footage, I aimed to expand awareness of the event’s success within the early childhood and business community, as well as reach potential partners or donors.
Read the full blog post Here.
