So as you know I'm a part of Circle K at school, it is a community service oriented club associated with the Kiwanis Family.
Well, of course I had to come up with my very own service project to put my heart and soul into this year!
I was in the middle of brainstorming different projects for me to run when I ran into the president of the club in our communal bathroom around 1am one night. She was talking to me about how she didn't know where to donate dreamcatchers the club wanted to make at DCON, and how she wasn't the best at calling and talking to different organizations to ask.
And of course I said "Hi! I'm a Communications major! I'll call places!"
The first place I called was Schnieder Children's Hospital, the man in charge of the Child Life program said that unfortunately that dreamcatchers were not something they were interested in, since we would have to touch them and the hospital couldn't really clean them. He did send me a list of all the types of things they DID accept.
This included a huge list of board games.
And "The Board Game Drive and Bake Sale" was born.
We asked every club on campus to donate a brand new board game or the funds for us to go out and buy one in their name. We ended up only getting 2 actual games from clubs, 2 games from random friends of ours, and about $20 in donates for clubs.
But our bake sale was a HUGE success! We made about $250!
I made Candy Land Cupcakes (better pictures later).
We also made Clue Rice Crispie Treats (we sold them 3 for $1, and you could pick a person, weapon, and room), Apples to Apples Brownies (2 for $1, and you could pick a noun and an adjective), and Twister Cookies.
The day of the bake sale! Allison, Collen, Me, Nicole, Alicia, and Ricky.
Our cash box was a greeting card box my aunt gave me years ago and I brought to college because I'm obsessed with sending people cards.
Then, about a month later, armed with our $275 in cash, and the list from Schneider's (now Cohen's), we headed to Target to SHOP!!!!!
Thank you random woman we asked to take a picture of us for having shaky hands.
We filled one whole cart, took like 10 minutes in line, paid at least $10 of our bill in change, and apologized to the people behind us, explaining that it was for a good cause. They didn't care, and just rolled their eyes at us.
We bought 13 board games!
But the hospital asked for a bunch of other stuff too! So we went crazy! Craft kits, books, nail polish, baby hats, teethers, bubbles, Play Dough, coloring books, crayons, flash cards (because Miss Math Major Nicole made us), puzzles, play food, K'nex (once my brother built me a working ferris wheel out of K'Nex and now they always trump Legos in my mind), and a giant tub of Spongebob themed games.
And then we went to Cohen's, got lost, had to park two blocks away and walk (with all our games, in the rain no less), and were finally able to donate them.
The man in charge of the Child Life Program, who I had been in contact with for 3 months, was so kind to us, explaining what so many of the different things we brought would be used for, and thanking us so much.
We plan on making this an annual project for at least the next 4 years (Alicia and Nicole are in a 5 year education program), and with so many high price items on the list (mobiles, play chairs, video game systems), we might only buy 1 or two high priced items instead of a bunch of little ones. It depends what the hospital asks for.
However, we will continue to market it as "The Annual Board Game Drive and Bake Sale!"
3 comments: