Journal

3/27

As of today, I have no actual plans. My sickness (some weird virus) has hindered some planning but what I do have is an idea. After talking to my mentor, Mr. Rodoff, he introduced a fundraising idea that I really like. On a Saturday morning, sometime in the Spring, I’ll host multiple lemonade stands across the township with the help of the STHS Girls Lacrosse team. We plan on having stands during township sporting games (little league, Spartan lacrosse, etc) at a few locations all across the township. By hosting the events through the township, I hope that it will be easier to gain approval as well as publicity for my fundraiser. I haven’t talked to the girls yet but I’m sure at least some of them would love to volunteer...it looks great on college apps! I also have to talk to my parents as well since they’ll have to invest time and some money to assist me with hosting the stand. Another ‘feature’ is recontacting Connie Fuston of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. I originally contacted her at the beginning of the semester and she provided me with information about hosting a stand (much of which can be found on their website) as well as information about public relations contacts. I need to talk to her about flyers- I’d love to hand out something customized to my liking as well as the fundraising needs. Looks like I have a lot of work to do...

4/1

I just talked to Mr. Rodoff and right now I need to contact Lisa Guyer of Spartan Girls Lacrosse and ask for the schedule/explain what I'm doing. I need to pick a date ASAP but the problem is April is basically fully booked. Next weekend is too soon, the weekend after that I'm on my YAG trip, the weekend after that is Easter and the weekend after that is the Lax-a-Thon. THEN it's May and it's prom weekend, then LaSalle Prom and that's the weekend before the projects due. Obviously I'll have to do the fundraiser after prom which kind of sucks but I'm trying to figure it out. Once I receive the schedule, I'll pick a date and then Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation asks that stands register through their website. Once I register I am put in contact with someone who helps me throughout the process. I have so much to do and I'm freaking out.

4/5 I talked to Mrs. Guyer over the weekend and she's all about helping me! She said that Alex's Lemonade Stand was very near and dear to her heart. While looking at the schedule and with her suggestions, we determined that May 14th at the high school would be a good day to set everything up. It kind of sucks because it's right before the thesis driven project is due, but I really don't have a choice so I'll survive. I okay-ed the date with Mr. Rodoff but there is also another program for 1st and 2nd graders I could possibly do something for on May 1st, but as of right now, I'm not sure if I'll have the time or resources. Rodoff reminded me to talk to the team and make sure that some of the girls (if not all :) can help me run the stand on the 14th. That's another problem with May 1st, the day before is our Lax-a-Thon so that is asking a lot of my teammates, some of whom have very busy lives and AP tests to study for. Anyway back to the 14th, I do not know how many stands I want but I do know that I need to register my fundraiser with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation and hopefully spread the word throughout Springfield! I have a little more than a month to figure everything out...ah!

4/28 I've gotten a decent amount of things done! Woohoo being productive. First I registered my event on the ALSF website calling it Lacrosse & Lemonade and it will be held on May 14th at 9am. I had to put in a goal amount of funds raised and I put $500. I'm not quite sure of how much I could actually raise and I feel that $500 isn't a lot, but I reassured myself that it is better than nothing and it's what I can do to help. I'm also awaiting a package that contains information and paperwork to help me fundraise and the information I need to send in the donations. I also came in contact with my "sponsor" from the ALS Foundation and it's actually the lady I talked to before, Connie Fuston. Right now I don't have any questions but if I do, I know who to talk to. I also talked to my mentor, Mr. Rodoff and we came up with different ways of publicizing the event. I decided to make a Facebook event to get in touch with my friends and family. I will also link to the event page since they can donate online if they cannot make it. I'm also going to make a flyer to pass around the Middle School and Erdenhiem to get lacrosse players and students aware of my efforts. Rodoff also suggested to contact the Springfield Sun as well as Chestnut Hill Local to publicize my event. I'm getting really nervous. I e-mailed Mrs. Guyer as well to update her on everything I just said. I asked her if she had any suggestions and she said to only have one table. I'm not sure...I always planned on having more than one so maybe I can do one by the field and off of Haws Lane to attract cars passing by. I also need to figure out my supplies! Lots to do.

5/4 So this Enfield-Erdenhiem Carnival has brought a change of plans. I'm going to e-mail the newspapers today and come up with a flyer today/tomorrow and get it approved hopefully Monday. But since the carnival is the same day as my project, I emailed the principal of Enfield to see if I could also host a stand there as well. They usually have legit carnival people come in so I don't know if I'll be allowed, plus its very short notice. Hopefully she gets back to me ASAP, it would be nice because I would me maximizing the donations and that was one of my main concerns. But I have to get people to help me! I'm talking to the girls this weekend and hopefully some will be able to help. I'll have us go in our uniforms and everything. #laxlife. I can't believe it's already May and my project is due in like two weeks. Struggles, I have a lot of work to do!

5/18 So I'm done :) The hands-on stuff is over anyway. I raised $303. Obviously that was under my goal but I'm very happy with it since I realized that for a small scale event, $500 is wayyy too much. I did not end up calling the newspapers or making flyers, something that definitely would have helped since the Lacrosse stuff was more parents and friends on Facebook. It kind of sucked because I hoped more of my friends would try to help me out but only a few did, but regardless I'm glad some of them helped and donated. Overall, it was extremely stressful, I went to ACME three times (I have a bunch of lemonade mix leftover so that's kind of nice) and I've definitely learned a lot. I'm so thankful for the girls on the team aka my friends for taking time out of their Saturday and helping me. I think I had at least 15 people involved (Mr. Rodoff asked me to count). Mr. Rodoff even wants me to pass the information down to the girls so they can do this on a larger scale next year to expand our philatrophy efforts, kind of cool since I started it :) I don't think I'll have a hard time adding this into my powerpoint though...I'm excited to get that done too. Almost there!