Fundraising Activities~ Running, Swimming, Basketball

Instead of just asking for money to be donated- try doing something for it!  Each of my kids picked a sport they enjoy and then found sponsors to donate toward their activity.

I wrote about this in my blog:

For FHE this week we held a fundraising telethon.  Each child picked family members to call and ask them to be a sponsor.  I was totally entertained by this.  As a child I hated making phone calls- my kids are NOT like me.

The best was, 6 year old, Jace’s FIRST phone call to Grandma Trena.  It went something like this:

“Hi Grandma, this is Jace.  I am calling to ask you how much money you want to donate to me to run laps?  Our family goal is to raise $1000 to donate to Rising Star Outreach to help leprosy in India.  I’m going to run laps, how much do you think you want to donate?”  (Yes, it was all one big LONG run on sentence!)
I can’t hear Grandma, but I think she said she would sponsor $5 a lap.
“$5 a lap?”  Jace repeats.
“Umm...Grandma, I think you can do more than that.” He answers unsatisfied.
After negotiating a bit longer Jace seems satisfied with $10 a lap!!! (crazy grandma!)
Then he went on to tell her he is going to run 60 laps... maybe.
Grandma is getting worried she needs to find another job!

Now I know when we need to get something done Jace is the boy!

That night was so fun for me to see my kids reaching out to our family for support.  Everyone we called was so kind.  Every time one hung up the phone they had a huge smile on their face and gave each other “High Fives!“

To add more sweetness we had a bag of jelly beans.  After each phone call the caller got to put 5 jelly beans into a bowl to see if we could fill it.  After all the calls were made they got to eat them.

This experience taught my kids they CAN talk to adults and be heard.  I think that’s important.  Thank you to everyone that helped with that lesson!

I then created this video to pass along to those who sponsored.  We were amazed at how much money 3 little kids raised!  

Our family goal was to raise $1,000 and our total donation was over $4,000!  

We'll never forget this experience!