I had a few comments on my fundraising so I thought I'd put it in a blog.

I'm actually working on 2 different things. I'm helping the freshman class with their fundraising. The way they do it in our high school is the Juniors have to put on the Senior Prom and Graduation so they have to start hustling in their freshman year. There was a mtg on Tues and they have to raise $7400 this year to stay on target! Yikes!

Then my son was nominated to go on a People to People trip last year to Europe. We had raised about $3000 towards the trip when a month before the trip several things happened at once. First they moved the trip up by 2 wks so he would have had to miss his last week of school, which that alone wasn't too big a deal since they don't do a whole lot that week. Then, how it works is, you have a leader who schedules mtgs from Oct-May so you and your child get very comfortable with that person. Well our leader knew she was going to have major surgery in May but didn't tell anyone. It didn't go as well as expected and she was scheduled for another surgery so they brought in a guy to take over. This is 3 wks before they were suppose to go. That gaves us a real "red flag" feeling. Especially since he kept calling my son by the wrong name (not even the name of a kid in the group) and told him to get use to it because he would probably keep doing it. Ok, and this is who was suppose to be looking out for our son in Europe?! Now, he could be the nicest guy in the world but I don't know that and first impressions ranked pretty low. Right after that, the volcano erupted several times over there and finally Greece started having riots. I had talked to God after the leader change and when the last 2 things happened, I told him that was a bigger message than I needed!! vbg

So back to my fundraising. He has been nominated again but this time to go to Australia. Totally different leader and she is so organized! We still have about $3500 to raise before April.

So.....we have been brainstorming, looking online, etc. For his trip, since it's one person, a lot of the regular fundraisers won't work because we don't have many people to sell things to. But I did come up with one idea. I found a website that has Christmas cards that you can print out for free. So I took this idea to the freshman meeting, that I would make up the cards on quality white card stock, add envelopes and they could sell them in packs of 10 or 12 (haven't decided yet) for $10 (by taking orders). Then I would give them 40% of whatever was made. That way, they have a chance to make a nice profit, will help us with my son's trip and the extra little bit will pay for whatever supplies --cardstock, envies, ink, etc., I have to buy. The teacher sponsor has to run it by the Vice Principal so I'll know if its a go or not next Tues. Keeping my fingers crossed because I think it could really be a good one for all parties.

I thought about trying to find a few craft shows and taking packs of cards with me to sell. I know from last year, it gets harder to fundraise after the holidays so I was trying to come up with things for now that wouldn't require a huge up front investment. I thought about a recipe book but that can get expensive up front and if you don't sell them you're stuck with the rest.

Another idea for a craft show was those jars where you decorate them and then layer stuff in them with a recipe card. I found a book at Barnes & Nobles that has a bunch of recipes from cookies to soups that most sound really good.

****But if anyone has any other ideas, I would LOVE to hear them.

I was going to see if all the kids from this part of Michigan going on this trip would like to do a group fundraiser but we won't be meeting them till Dec. 18th and that's too late to do a holiday one.

So that's where I'm at right now. One friend said she had seen a YouTube video where a girl was singing a song and she was really good. She told her story first, sang and then had a link to a ChipIn acct were people could donate a few dollars if they wanted to. Don't know about this yet, I haven't had time to look into it.

What do you think of these ideas? And do you have any we could take a look at. We live in a small town so things that require a huge amt of people to contribute don't work well.

I definitely would appreciate any input. Thanks in advance!!