If you haven’t been keeping up with this blog, let me explain what I’m doing. On January 29, 2011, my Philanthropic Society Club will be sponsoring a 5k Run to raise money to fight leukemia and to help a young boy with his medical expenses.
I wanted to document my journey for future reference and to help other teachers who want to do something similar at their schools.
If you go back in my posts, you can see what I’ve done so far.
Here is what has been happening lately:
1. I received a confirmation from my T-shirt guy for the 25 shirts I asked for. He’s going to donate them to us, and I’m going to include his company on any promotional material.
2. We decided on having a talent show during the walk. This will not only fill the time with some free entertainment, but it will bring in extra family and friends who I will encourage to donate to the cause. I’m working on the logistics of that still. Thank you to Jennifer Wagner @jenwagner for the idea.
3. We have decided to make it a minimum donation of $20 to participate in the walk.
4. Since we don’t have anything to give away to the participants, we went ahead and added a raffle. For every $10 donated, participants will get a ticket toward the raffle. I’ll be calling out winners during the walk. We have already begun receiving donations toward the raffle prizes – free oil changes, free bouquet of flowers, a free lunch at a restaurant, etc. We’ll be asking for more donations from other local companies.
5. I’ve begun promoting it on Facebook, and have already received promises of assistance from former students.
6. I’ve received confirmation from the Leadership club at my school to create a balloon arch or pillars for the event.
7. I’ve also secured 20 students from another community service club at school for set up and tear down.
8. I have a sound system and a sound tech ready to go.
9. I’ve secured a person to act as security for the collection table.
I still have a lot to do:
1. Ask for more raffle prizes. I want to see if any of my Facebook friends will donate some of the gift cards they received for Christmas.
2. Create the raffle ticket slips.
3. Announce and organize the talent show. I’d like to get another teacher to handle this, but if I can’t get someone, I’ll do it.
4. Finalize the opening and closing ceremonies.
5. Publicize. This seems to be taking care of itself. It’s evolving into a pretty big deal, and that’s cool. I still want to invite someone from the district to be there. I’m going to ask the superintendent himself. Why not? All he can say is no, or more likely he’ll send a designee. He might say yes. I also want to get some newspaper and even some television coverage. Wouldn’t that be cool?
I know that it’s going to be a lot of work, but it’s going to be something that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life. More importantly, it’s going to be something that my students will remember and will feel good about. Hopefully, it will inspire them to continue helping others.
I’m looking for help in the way of donations of money and/or services. If you, or someone you know can help, please contact me at: sam@successintheclassroom.com.
I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks,
Sam