Fundraising

Fundraising

I read somewhere, if you want something you must work for it! Perhaps it was from song lyrics, or the upbringing of my brother and I. We both had jobs young and never asked for money, because we had our own.

I come from a very small town of 2,700 people and I am proud to say that over a period of 5 years I have been part of a team of dedicated parents. When my son was in grade 8 it has been tradition that all the kids in he graduating class earn their way to a Toronto trip. Which includes a jet, meals, excursions, Jays baseball game, Canada’s Wonderland, trip to the parliament, museums and so much more including transportation. The parents and children throughout the year hold many fundraising events to help or totally pay for the trip was the first time that I was a part of a team to raise funds. We had movie nights, draws, white elephant sales, baking sales, cheese orders, hotdog sales, meals, and the grand finally was a talent show. That year we raised enough money for the kids to have a complexly fully funded trip.

I’m not sure if that lit a spark but the next 4 years was a whirlwind of fundraising, bonding with other parents and other kids. With my son being in air cadets it started in grade 7 the fundraising and ended when he graduated from grade 12. I helped raise approximately $80,000! Yes, $80,000. Here starts the journey…

When my son was in grade 9 the air cadet parents and facilitators got together to discuss the possibilities of sending a group of kids to Europe to see the beaches of Normandy, Paris, and to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the war. The only hitch was because it was air cadets it had to be fully 100% funded by fundraising. We had to make a choice to be in or out. Fortunately, the group of parents were amazing and we were fully committed. We had two years to raise close to $40,000. It was no easy task to venture but we were determined. One of the parents took on all of the books, and spearheaded all of the events. We new we all had to be committed to doing one or two fundraising events every week to reach the goal.

And that we did! It was hard work for all of the parents, grandparents, friends and kids. We had meetings after meeting to discuss what we should do and we all become very bonded and soon found out that friends could and did become family. We decided that the best way to earn the biggest money was to follow the crowds. In our small town every year they host MUD FLINGS! Which includes big trucks with loud motors, and a mud whole. The drivers would speed through the mud for the fastest time and would win prizes. People from all over came to watch and was a big thing to start the festivities of summer. The air cadets already have been setting up a booth to raise money for the non profit organization to pay the bills.so we all were hands on with the regular booth, and added another food booth for the fundraising! It was a huge success.

The following weekend the town had a big bass tournament where 110 boats all participated in the race to get the highest weight of five fish for a top prize of 10,000. This event has been a huge success for our little town and a bunch of volunteers to make it run smoothly with the laws of the MNRF to keep the oxygen levels proper, to transporting to be later release all fish to be put into the lake. It is an amazing organization. Anyways, our little team of fundraisers piggy backed that event as well for two hot sometimes rainy days we put up another booth to sell food, pop, freezies ext. all within the guidelines of health regulations . Which is a lot of work constantly checking for temperatures of meet, to proper hand washing stations, and keeping organized. It was a lot of work but it was also fun.

Other events were big yard sales, bake sales, making perogies b6 the thousands! Renza buns, food booths for the car shows, cheese sales, we all worked in a canteen at the hockey arena with specials weekly and baking, coffee ext. In the end we raised all of the money for each air cadet to go for seven nights to Europe. The kids learned a lot.

In the meantime starting in grade 10 the french group had a meeting with all of the parents that they wanted to go to Europe to Switzerland to learn the culture and practise their French. This was not a fully funded trip but all the money raised would be equally split to recover some or most of the money spent. Many of the French kids were also air cadet kids so we knew what we were getting into plus the addition of new parents and new energy we all decided to start fundraising so the kids could go the following year.

We took the same approach to following crowds., yard sales and penny auctions were a huge success. The selling of pizzas, we had many, many lunch kitchens at the school when teams would come to the town for sports. The ideas were endless from the fresh eyes and old faces. Chocolate bar sales were a huge success as well.so when my son was in grad 11 he got to go to Europe again with his French group along side of a French group from another high school in another town. The parents recovered quite a bit of funds after all bills were payed for, which in our minds of parents was a huge success. This brought the group closer together as well.

Precisely I mentioned 5 years of fundraising which brings us to my son being in grade 12. We as parents were proud of the air cadets with their dedication to the program and working so hard to get to Europe we decided to raise some money for bursaries which would be funded for three years until the parents would have to fundraise again. It was very rewarding seeing the kids get the bursaries in front of their peers and to see other young kids get excited to want to join one day.

The five years was a lot of sacrifice and many hours of planning and implementing but I would never change it for the world. The connections made between parents and children will last a lifetime. So my encouraging words to future fundraisers are: Go for it, it is very rewarding.

During Covid, fundraising has been put to a halt but I hope that the future air cadets and French groups will continue to fundraise and go on adventures of bonding and learning experiences. Thank you family, friends, and community for supporting the kids over the years to learn, grow, work hard and travel. This journey of fundraising became a passion to become a better person, to be a better community member, to be a better parent and to support the kids and cherish all of the memories.

Good luck to all and enjoy the process!