Fundraising

Lots of things crossed my mind here. It was too cold for outside activities, such as a barbecue or a car wash, so inside it was. I planned the trip for February, so this also meant that time would tick quickly. After exhausting all sorts of ideas, and shooting down a raffle for an i-pod that we would have to purchase, we came to a consensus that sending Valentine's would be the way to go. A lot of debate went on about which things to purchase because candy was ruled out by the health standards of the school district. We decided that selling stuffed gorillas would be the best path...and fortune cookies. A weird combo that we were hoping would work. See exhibit A, to the left.

All of the fund raising efforts were going to take place the week before Valentine's day, so that meant we were waiting, fingers crossed, until the end of the week to know for sure if our trip would work out or not. The gorillas arrived early, so pre-sales began the Friday before, and looked promising. We added in another fundraiser as well: a raffle. So many generous people offered items to be raffled for free. Nuggets and Avs tickets were the biggest draw, but there were also many other smaller prizes that were exciting as well, such as movie tickets, starbucks, an autograph picture, and a sketch pad. Best idea ever was to include the raffle.

Mid-week before Valentine's, sales were low and depressing. I don't think I was more stressed out than I was that week. By Friday, we had things turned around and sales had been pouring in. I'm attributing this to forgetfullness and procrastination. At the end of the week, we had enough money to cover our Blue Man Group tickets, and the trip was offically set for the end of February!!!