The story of how I uniquely raised money for my missions trip to Belize in 2018
After being selected to go on a mission's trip to Belize I was tasked with the idea of fundraising over $1700. As everyone else started baking cupcakes and sending out letters I sat perplexed with where to start. I didn't want to have to rely on my friends and family to support me, but I also didn't want to join the masses of people selling baked goods outside the church each weekend. This is when I came up with the idea of a Kid's Christmas Craft Night. This night combined many of my favorite things. First being children, at the time I was serving in the first grade and kindergarten classrooms at church, so I had a great opportunity to canvas to families and kids I knew. And the second being crafts; when I was younger my teachers would help us make and wrap Christmas gifts for our parents to open on Christmas morning. As an elementary schooler, this concept was amazing because this gift would be an actual surprise for my parents; I was excited to share that same feeling with the kids at the event. This event also gave the parents an opportunity to either go on a date night or get in some extra holiday shopping without their kid.
Although this was a small event it taught me that things don't always work out as planned. I had originally estimated around 40 kids in attendance (covering almost all of my mission trip costs), but twelve ended up signing up. Let me just say it wasn't from a lack of trying. At our church, there are three different children's rooms for kids between the ages of 4-8, each weekend these classes house around 100 kids (making only part of our youth ministry). For three weeks the volunteers and I would hand out the flyers for my event. Since I had put so much time in to this event it was hard to accept how little of an impact it had made to my overall trip cost. Although I wish this event had turned out like planned, it helped me learn that even when you do all you can, things might still go awry. This is not only useful in my situation, but this lesson can also be applied to many other aspects of life. It is important not to dwell on the outcome, but rather realize you did what you could and try the next thing.
After this event, I began crafting letters to send to my family and friends (even though I had wanted to avoid that all together). In the end, I was able to get my whole trip funded and everything worked out. Even though there wasn't a huge turn out like I expected, I would still consider my event a success. If I were to turn around and do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing. I wanted to be creative in my money raising pursuit by doing something no one else was doing and that is what I did. I poured my heart into every detail and I was able to reap those benefits as the kids left overjoyed that evening.
Although this was a small event it taught me that things don't always work out as planned. I had originally estimated around 40 kids in attendance (covering almost all of my mission trip costs), but twelve ended up signing up. Let me just say it wasn't from a lack of trying. At our church, there are three different children's rooms for kids between the ages of 4-8, each weekend these classes house around 100 kids (making only part of our youth ministry). For three weeks the volunteers and I would hand out the flyers for my event. Since I had put so much time in to this event it was hard to accept how little of an impact it had made to my overall trip cost. Although I wish this event had turned out like planned, it helped me learn that even when you do all you can, things might still go awry. This is not only useful in my situation, but this lesson can also be applied to many other aspects of life. It is important not to dwell on the outcome, but rather realize you did what you could and try the next thing.
After this event, I began crafting letters to send to my family and friends (even though I had wanted to avoid that all together). In the end, I was able to get my whole trip funded and everything worked out. Even though there wasn't a huge turn out like I expected, I would still consider my event a success. If I were to turn around and do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing. I wanted to be creative in my money raising pursuit by doing something no one else was doing and that is what I did. I poured my heart into every detail and I was able to reap those benefits as the kids left overjoyed that evening.