Fourth Blogpost

The past week has been very productive as far as fundraising goes. We have narrowed our activities down to two events that we will both do during May 2010. The first event that we realized we wanted to do was a Car Wash. The Car wash is suppose to take place on May 8th but due to foul weather we will be re-planning it to the fifteenth. I believe the car wash is a very good idea because we were able to publicize it very well and we made flyers that were distributed to most of the students so that they would be able to give them to their parents. The idea was that the paretns would hang them up in their workplaces and other would people would be interested in attending the car wash.
The other fundraising event that we developed was a "yard-sale" that we were planning on doing at the end of the month of May 2010. The yard-sale would take place in the school and we would sell items brought in by students are parents. Flyers and emails were sent out to parents for them to virtually "clean out their closet and basements" in order to find things that could be sold for fundraising at the yard-sale. I believe this will be a great idea and generate a good amount of money because people on Main Street will see it and will find it appealing. Yard-sales are loved by many people and with having one in a school, for a good cause, people would be very interested.
I think the fundraising ideas are very good because we thought them through and came to the conculsion that they will raise a lot of money. I am planning on attending the yardsale because we that is what my group decided to do, and I will not be attending the car wash but I am telling all of my other family and friends about it. I am loooking forward to the yard-sale and to see how many things we can get, and how much we can sell them for. This week is the start of the fundraising!

Journal Entry #3

This week was very interesting regarding the Morocco trip. We had the group meetings today and I thought they were extremely interesting. We decided last week in the whole group meeting that we would be splitting up into different groups, each assigned with a fundraising idea, and the way the fundraiser was set up and carried out was up to the different groups to decide. The two fundraising ideas that we came up with for the months of April and May are a Movie Night, and a "Rent a Sophomore Day." The group I was in was assigned to the Rent a Sophomore Day along with Mr. Newcomb's group. I think it is a very clever idea and a very fun way to raise money. Nobody knew who came up with the idea, but it was well-liked by mostly everybody in the group that I was in because it is an event that people would have a lot of fun with and a day that would bring a lot of smiles to numerous people.
The other groups focused in on the Movie Night. Due to the fact that I was not in one of those groups, I am unaware of what conclusions they came to, but it does sound like a great way to raise money because everyone loves watching family movies, and when they can bring their close family and friends, it is going to be a good time. My group had the meeting today at lunch to discuss the Rent a Sophomore Day and the logistics of how it is going to work. We were stuck on a couple of different things because it sounded like it would be hard and that we would not get that much money. But there is no giving up on fundraisers and raising money, it is a process of trial and error, so we have to give it a try and if it doesn't work than so be it, it is just motivation to make an even bigger, better fundraiser the next time around.
Today we came up with the ideas that during Rent a Sophomore Day, the designated sophomore would be put up for auction. There would be a set price for the Sophomore, and then people would bid higher if they really wanted them. The sophomore's duties would include cleaning the locker out of the buyer (with the consent of the buyer), carry all of the buyer's books, bags, and other items to his or her classes or locker. Go out and get the lunch of the buyer, or possible make the lunch of the buyer. Spend as much time as possible throughout the day with the buyer and do whatever they want. The buyer gets to choose what they want the sophomore to wear, how they want them to act and anything along those lines, it is almost like the buyer is having the sophomore as a doll and the sophomore obeys the orders of the buyer (within reason of course.) The buyer would be able to control the actions of the sophomore and it would be a day filled with laugher and fun.

Morocco - Week One

I feel both ambitious as well as ready after the first week. We have talked about many fundraising ideas and how we would do them, where we would do them and the logistics of fundraising, but I am ready to actually go out and start fundraising, I am ready to raise money and start the hard part of the expedition. I would say that my excitement level has decreased in the past week because I am now realizing that the trip is a long way away and it will just be a lot of hard work, time, and dedication leading up to it. I am excited that we are going to be able to start fundraising very soon, but I want to be able to organize all of the ideas we have about what we are going to and sort everything out.
I think that as a whole, the group came up with many great ideas that will generate a lot of money for us and will cut the cost down of the trip. I believe that the ideas we came up with for fundraising are very creative and out of the ordinary of most fundraisers. I will be able to contribute a great amount of dedication and hard work. I am ready for everything and anything and my goal is to raise as much money as we can, weather it be from a Student-teacher softball game to pay money to hear Mr. Fetzer's pilgrim voice. I have talents of speaking well in front of others and I have connections with golf courses that will benefit the golf tournament. I have been working with a peer in arranging ways that we could set up a golf tournament and i think it is a perfect way to get a lot of money quickly.
In the small group meeting today I contributed what I thought of the fundraisers and I gave my opinions on which ones I thought would work and which ones I thought would generate the most money. I would definitely say that my favorite fundraising idea that I have heard is the golf tournament. Golf is my favorite sport and having been working on a golf course for some years, I have seen many fundraisers go on, and now that I have a chance to create one is incredible. I believe that a golf tournament could get a substantial amount of money and that is why I am so interested in it.
I am participating in the media group and I believe the media group is very interesting. I want to write about the group and the things that we do as this long journey progresses. So far we have found ways to advertise the trip but we are holding off to contact businesses and parents about fundraising until we have a detailed summary of what the trip is about and what we are going to be doing on the trip.

First Morocco Trip Meeting

I signed up for the Morocco trip because I know that it will be a fantastic experience and I will learn so much from it. It appeals to me because I have never been to a foreign country like Morocco and it seems extremely interesting. I love challenges and the Morocco trip seems like a challenge that I want to take. I hope to gain some perception of the real world by going on this trip and I want to learn about the culture of the Moroccans as well as how different it is from American culture. I hope to gain knowledge about the Moroccan world and how the people act there.

I am both anxious and exciting for traveling to a foreign country because it is something that I have never done before and it will be so different than what I am used to doing. I am excited for the things we are going to do in Morocco and anxious for the long journey to get there. I plan to contribute to the group by reaching out to businesses, possibly hosting fundraisers, and raising money in different ways to help out with the costs of the trip for the group members. I have some ideas already that I plan to discuss with my peers going to Morocco. The year of planning, fundraising, and group activities is something that is new to me, but it is something I am very comfortable with because I accept challenges and I see it as a learning experience.

My personal goals are to raise a significant amount of money for both myself and my group members to help decrease the cost of the trip. It will be a challenge but I know if I put a lot of thought into it and hold fundraisers, as well as reach out to businesses and prove to them why they should support me and the Moroccan group, I can raise a lot of money. I have a few plans for raising money for myself and for the group, I plan to hold a couple of jobs that will set me up with a good amount of money and then have fundraisers as well as have companies support the trip for the group. I thought Wednesday's meeting helped most of the students realize that it will not be that hard to raise the money for the trip and that if they go for it and try hard they will raise all of the money.