Fun for the Cure

We are running a class business through the Entrepreneurial Adventure Program and will be hosting a Family Fun Night at our school to support cancer research, specifically through the Terry Fox Foundation. We researched charities before deciding on the Terry Fox Foundation and 100% of our funds raised will go to the foundation. We will also use the event to promote healthy living to prevent cancer. We will sell tickets and refreshments to raise money. There will be games guests can play at our Family Fun Night and students are welcome to bring their families for a fun filled evening.

Update (May 26, 2017)

Our teacher signed us up to participate in Entrepreneurial Adventure, which is a program that helps students run a business to raise money for a charity of our choice. We decided to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation. Cancer research is very important to us and, after researching several charities, we learned that the Terry Fox Foundation donates about 80% of each dollar to cancer research, a lot more than other charities we read about. We also learned the Terry Fox Foundation spends a small percentage on fundraising and administration and many people who work with the foundation are volunteers. We love the volunteer spirit, so our teacher asked a volunteer who speaks in classrooms connected to the foundation to tell us more! We met Brenda in spring and heard her inspirational message about Terry Fox and she came out to support our fundraiser too!

Update (May 26, 2017)

We decided that we would host a Family Fun Night for our fundraiser; which is an event where families come to our school after classes to play games and enjoy snacks and drinks. We sold tickets to our event for $3 per person (kids 3 and under got in free) and we also sold snacks and drinks for cash purchase at our Family Fun Night, which took place on May 15, 2017. We decided to form teams to help us prepare. We had six teams to prepare for our event: Administration and Finance, Sales and Marketing, Emergency, Refreshment, Entertainment, and Site Team. Each team had different jobs leading up to our event. We all wrote cover letters and resumes and had interviews to apply for our preferred jobs. Our business partner, Mark from B.M.O., and his colleague ran the interviews. We really appreciated Mark and his colleagues' help during our project. Mark was matched with our class through the Entrepreneurial Adventure program and volunteered his time to help and sometimes brought his colleagues to help too!

Update (May 26, 2017)

Selling tickets in advance and during our Family Fun Night was a big part of our fundraising. Our entire class sold tickets in advance and the Sales and Marketing Team sold the tickets at the door.

Update (May 26, 2017)

Refreshment Sales were a huge part of our fundraising efforts. We used most of the money from the subsidy to purchase snacks and drinks. We sold the refreshments at our Family Fun Night and sold the leftover ones at recess following our event.

Update (May 26, 2017)

Game and activity stations were essential in making our event fun. We ran many stations for our guests including Bean Bag Toss, Giant Jenga, Giant Kerplunk, Lego, Bowling, Drawing and Colouring, and more!

Update (May 26, 2017)

Our Emergency Team helped our event run smoothly by patrolling for safety while the rest of us sold tickets, ran game stations, or sold refreshments. They made sure we knew which station we were working at the right time as well as when to go on break!

Update (May 26, 2017)

We had a great time counting the money from our fundraiser! Our entire class counted the money raised from our Family Fun Night. Then, the Sales and Marketing Team counted the money from the recess refreshment sales with Miss Cichosz's help.

Update (May 26, 2017)

After our Family Fun Night, we reflected on what we thought went well and what we could improve if we were to run a similar fundraiser in the future. We felt that the activities encouraged our guests to be active, but we found the snack and drink choices challenging. On one hand we wanted to promote healthy living, and chips and sweet food and drinks don't do that, but on the other hand we wanted to raise a lot of money for the Terry Fox Foundation and these items are popular. That is a problem we might be able to solve in the future, perhaps by selling non-consumable items, such as artwork, instead. Overall, we felt our event and recess sales were a success. We raised $868 from our ticket and refreshment sales at our Family Fun Night and through advance ticket sales. We raised $384.75 from our recess refreshment sales and small donations. In total we raised $1252.75 for the Terry Fox Foundation and will be presenting the cheque in the next week or two.