[Avalon]

As you may remember from a little while ago, I am currently sponsoring one 'foster child' from Paraguay through Foster Parent's Plan (Plan International).

I really want to sponsor a second child, but am not sure if I can do it alone on my university student's budget. THUS, I have decided to fundraise!

All I need is $370 dollars in total, and I know I can do it if I set my mind to it! (That's approximately $10 bucks from 37 people, or $15 from 25 ppl, or $20 from 19 ppl, or $31 bucks (a month's sponsorship) from 12 ppl, including myself).

You may remember my "36 Hour Fast" idea from a while ago... It has gotten fairly poor reception up here, so I am trying to find other ways to raise the cash in the meantime.

I have asked my university dept for permission to sell cookies and muffins, etc, in the Lab where I work (to go with the coffee we sell) and use the profits to support the second kiddo... but we have to wait for approval from the uni first, and it may be a no-go...

IN the meantime, I have decided I will begin spreading the word!

If any of you have any good suggestions for fundraising activities that I can pull off basically by myself, please let me know!

OR, if you would like to donate something to help me raise the funds, PM me and I can send you my p.o.box mailing addy. (This is a good way to contribute to something worthwhile, without having to contribute to a whole $31/month yourself!)

The group I am fundraising for will send tax receipts to anyone who donates, if I give them a list of those requesting it.

Check out www.fosterparentsplan.ca to see what I'm on about, and give me some feedback in the meantime!

I want to sponsor a girl this time, as women are largely underrepresented on a global scale, and in an area/age group which places her at risk of being sucked into the sex trade.

If any VBers help me out, I will post info and updates here for all to see!

 

[LadyFaile]

selling goodies at the lab sounds good if they'll let you do it. i don't see why not, as long as you're letting people know where the money is going.

 

[VealPrincess]

you could always do a valentine-o-gram sale

 

[Avalon]

Oooooh. Good idea. HOw would that work?

The uni has some funny rules about making money within the school, and how it's legislated, etc. They worry about allowing a private party to sell wares and make cash out of a department funded and run service location...

I can see that, but if they view it as simply a private fundraiser, and approve the issue, I can't see why not.

Policy is funny that way sometimes, though.

I thought I might also sell off a bunch of crap on e-bay. And/or have a winter garage sale. Brrr.

In the meantime, I think I will just tell ppl what I'm doing and ask them to pitch in. I felt better doing so, though, when I was "doing something" for it... As in, they were sponsoring me to do something, or pull something off...

The other thing is, I could do it biannually... and do one winter fundraising activity, for less cash, and then a summer one, like a bike trip or something.

I feel a little stuck. I was thrilled when I thought of the baking thing. I wish it would be approved. Mebbe it will.

 

[Avalon]

The other thing is, I may try calling it a 30 Hour Fast... I think ppl see the 36 hours as pretty extreme.

I saw examples on those webpages of ppl who had 30 hour sit-ins (in the trophy case at their school, for example) and I know the local highschool does 30 Hour Famines all the time.

If ppl freak, I can remind them that it's healthy enough for highschool students to pull off- why not me. It's one freakin' weekend, for crying outloud. PLus, I can send the BF to work to mooch cash off of all his officie ppl he knows. They're rolling in it.

 

[Avalon]

Noon one day, till 18h00 the next. Big whoop.

 

[Avalon]

OOh! I have my first pledge for a month's worth! Yeehaw!!

 

[Skylark]

Av,

I completely agree about sponsoring a girl from an area rampaged by the sex slavery trade so that she won't have to go into that. I'm planning to sponsor a child who speaks/writes Spanish so I can write to him/her and the org.'s translators don't have to do a thing!

 

[LadyFaile]

is there somewhere else you can sell the baking then? student union office, your bf's work, etc? maybe even the staff lounge at school. they may be less picky about things done in the private lounge than out in the open

 

[Robert]

You could also bring stuff, baked goods or stuff you no longer use to a local flea market. It's a captive audience all looking to spend money

 

[LadyFaile]

true but most places charge for tablespace

 

[Avalon]

Actually the Lab is fairly private- it's just anthro and soci students and staff using computers for e-mail, and making coffee. They've requested snacks in the past... mebbe we'll find out soon.

I'm hoping to start selling some crap on Ebay, which will help, and/or having an outside winter garage sale, with hot chocolate!

(I have a bunch of stuff to get rid of before my move anyway).

There are a ton of really good ideas I could pull off if it were warmer out. (See Avalon sitting at her soapbox lemonade stand looking hopeful).

I also noticed there was a lady on ebay selling quilt squares (so you can take them home and quilt them yourself) which were of a really simple design, and probably cost her an afternoon of labour at her sewing machine, and a few bucks. That might work too.

In the meantime, I will be planning as though to have a 30 hour famine.

And hey- NO reason I can't do all of the above!

 

[LadyFaile]

go with apple cider, it's cheaper to make

one thing i'm considering doing is what someone here mentioned before christmas. flavoured hot chocolate mix in a nice jar to give as a gift. my mom and her friend are getting a table at a christmas craft show, selling crocheted and knitted stuff, and invited me to join. instead of learning how to crochet, i might just sell jars of yummy vegan hot chocolate mix. i think it'll be cheap to make, the most expensive part will be to get some cute little jars at the dollar store probably a buck a piece.

you could try that and experiment with different flavours and stuff. make some and give little free samples of a different flavour each day to make people want to buy them all

 

[Seadolphin]

Avalon, what a neat idea to sposnor a child, especially a girl, since like you say women have so few rights there.

 

[Avalon]

The real problem is that sometimes, even if the girl HAS rights, the rest of her life gets set up in such a way that she is unable to fulfill them.

The big issue that freaks me out is the trade in children that has become so popular.

Rich ppl will go into a poor village and tell the parents they will pay them X dollars for their child to go into the city with them, and find work. The parents, not being educated to the dangers (for many reasons), will say OK, and never see their kid again.

Meanwhile these kids are sold as domestic slaves, or more often, into prostitution. They are abused, beaten up, kept in tiny rooms, etc...

Sometimes boys are also taken to be ************* in middle eastern countries. Other kids get sold to sweat shops for slave labour. As young as age 4 even.

The roughest part is most parents don't find out how bad these ppl are until it's too late, if ever, and the cycle continues.

In the case of these prostituted girls, if they do ever come home, there is such shame attached to what they were forced to do, they will lie about it: (No, it was great- I worked for a nice family caring for children. See the gold bracelet I bought?)... then no one KNOWS, the next time some person comes around to take ppl's kids away, what they are really being sold into.

The #1 best way to avoid all this is through education, and providing alternate income, or income help, to the families, so they can afford to keep their kids in school, and food on the table.

One kid I have heard of, and who was the inspiration behind Craig Keilburger's Free the Children group, was sold into a life of slavery for the equivalent of $13 dollars... all to pay for an older brother's wedding.

 

[Avalon]

Seadolphin, it was important to me to find a group that is honest and without ulterior motive.

I did a lot of research on the matter, but once I looked into things enough it became clear to me that I couldn't possibly NOT help any more.

And, let's be honest, I get a huge amount back. I get such a kick out of the chance to connect cross-culturally, and feel a little less useless in the world.

You should check out the movie "About Schmidt". The thread holding the flick together is this old guy's relationship with his new foster child in Africa, to which he begins to write during what is basically a Retirement-Age Crisis.

He searches and searches for some way in which he has had impact on this planet, and only realises his own potential through contact with this little kid thousands of miles away. It's pretty good, actually.

 

[LadyFaile]

oh i had no idea what that movie was about, the previews don't give much away.

 

[Avalon]

I know, it's a bit unfortunate, actually, cause it's the best part of the film.

http://www.aboutschmidtmovie.com/

*WARNING:: DO not type in 'aboutschmidt.com' as it will bring up endless porno windows of a nasty kind!! In particular, do not do this at work!!! AACK!

(Avalon clicks away windows desperately, hoping no one from the faculty will walk by as she does)

 

[Robert]

Off-topic, but.... Avalon, and anyone else interested. The web is becoming infested with all sorts of scumsuckers and bottomfeeders trying to divert traffic for a buck anyway they can.

What you may want to do is either use a browser like Mozilla or the latest version of Netscape which comes with built in funtionality to disable new windows from popping up.

Or, one thng I didfor IE was to change my Internet Options / Security / Internet settings to maximum security (meaning no java, no activex, nothing) and then just put sites I actually trust in my trusted list. I no longer even see a popup window or flash popups or none of that stuff unless I choose to view it.

Basically I just swapped the settings around for the Truted Sites and Internet Sites zones.

 

[Avalon]

Well- I'm up to $133 NOW! wOOHOO! Going strong!

(Does anyone have any good resources for 'fast' prepping? -I know it's only 30 hours, but I want to assure my mother that I'm doing it right!

)