Their goal was to raise $26,000 and instead with the unique fundraisers and fundraising events they raised $47,245. To raise this amount for such a great cause, the school held a teacher “ugly dress” beauty pageant. This even allowed some of the teachers to show some of their other talents such as their Science teacher reading “Three Pigs” from the wolf’s perspective while showing his chemistry prowess with flammable gasses. The Spanish teacher performed a dance routine with other students and played some cowbells.

To also support the cause, the English teacher sold T-shirts and held auctions in her classroom.

Great job to Deer Creek High School for their ugly dress beauty pageant, lip-syncing, and stand up comedy acts to raise money for Ally’s House!

To read the whole article click here.

Keith Frick and Bob Thunselle have been on many bike rides together, some including ridding across the state of South Dakota and through the Mojave Desert and Death Valley in something known as the “Furnace Creek 508.”

Read their whole story.

Making and selling pretzels helps teach the kids about donating their time and a few principles on how to run a business. Thanks to the Daily Herald for sharing this story and best of luck to Barbara Hill and her pretzel making class!

(Daily Herald - Arlene Miles, 11/12/2007)

Ideas for school projects sometimes occur when you least expect them.

That’s what happened when Barbara Hill read a Scholastic News article with her class. Thus was born an annual fundraiser where fourth-graders at Bartlett Elementary School make fancy pretzels to raise money for UNICEF.

The fundraiser is in its fifth year with about $1,000 raised and donated annually.

The fourth-grade classes alternate weeks to make and sell the pretzels, taking pre-orders on a Monday, making the pretzels on a Thursday, and selling the goodies on a Friday.

About 600-1,000 pretzels are sold for 50 cents apiece each week during the fundraiser.

The students dip pretzel rods into melted chocolate, sometimes spooning the thick concoction onto the pretzel. Parents donate the supplies used to make the treats. The entire process takes about 90 minutes.

“We watch them (the students) like hawks to make sure that their hands stay where they are supposed to while they’re making the pretzels so we don’t get any bacteria in there,” Hill said.

The fourth-grade curriculum also incorporates what it is like to own and maintain a business, Hill added. Producing and selling the pretzels, is, in a way, a miniature business. Thus, the activity serves two purposes: to educate students about charitable work as well as what it takes to run a business.

“This is one of the few fundraising activities where the kids are doing all of the work,” Hill said. They have a greater understanding of what it takes to donate their time.”

Of course, there is one additional benefit from participating in this fundraiser. Students get to eat the leftovers — and who wouldn’t enjoy?

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The dance was a good way to get the community involved for they were also invited to come and take part at some modern jive.

(AUTUMN PHELPS) 8/27/2007

While youth fundraisers help make expensive activities affordable, they also can teach kids about work ethic. The Boy Scouts are a prime example.

“There are a couple of skills that they learn,” said Kevin Litt, Boy Scouts field director for Brevard and Osceola counties. “The most important is that if they do some work, they get a reward for it. We want our boys not to expect their parents to pay for everything.”

The biggest fundraiser of the year for local Boy Scout troops, which begins Sept. 10, is popcorn sales. At many Lowe’s, Wal-Mart and Publix locations, troops will sell pre-packaged gourmet popcorn, what some call the Boy Scout equivalent to Girl Scout cookies.

“The Cub Scouts tend to do the best because they’re the cutest,” Litt joked.

But all levels of Boy Scout Troops reap the benefits of popcorn sales, as about 35 percent of the money goes directly to the troops to use for camping trips and other programs, Litt said.

Read the full article here.

(WebWire) 8/22/2007 10:46:28 AM

Harley-Davidson’s fundraising efforts for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) raised more than $87,000 during the 2007 Sturgis Rally in Sturgis, SD. Harley-Davidson employees, MDA organizers and event volunteers participated in various activities to raise dollars during the event August 4-11.

Harley-Davidson and MDA volunteers sold event pins and raffle tickets for a 2008 Harley-Davidson FXSTC Softail Custom motorcycle customized by Willie G Davidson with special Sturgis graphics. As an added feature the motorcycle was fully accessorized with Genuine Motor Accessories™ installed live at the Harley-Davidson Road Tour Festival site at Rapid City’s Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. Rachel Hauser of Omaha, Nebraska won the one of a kind motorcycle.

Harley-Davidson has been a national sponsor of the Muscular Dystrophy Association since 1980 and the family of dealers, riders, suppliers and employees has raised more than $60 million for MDA. The funds raised support life-saving research, comprehensive medical care for children and adults with neuromuscular disease and MDA summer camps.

Read the full article here.

The art of fundraising
By Linda Kush/ Staff Writer
Thursday, August 3, 2006 - Updated: 08:29 AM EST

One afternoon last summer, Heather Maietta trudged along on aching, tired feet. Cranky and exhausted, she wondered what she could have been thinking when she decided to do this. It was the first day of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day walk, and the 22-mile leg was almost done.

“I was so tired I didn’t even eat dinner, and I said to myself, ’I’m never doing this again,’” she said. “Then three days later after the closing ceremonies, I walked right over to the tent and signed up for next year.”

Although that first day was tough, the 60-mile walk over three days got easier. Every two miles, children and cancer survivors shouted support from the roadside. At night, she and hundreds of other walkers slept in a tent compound. The 34-year-old Tewksbury resident reveled in the sense of community and was proud that she had raised the required $2,100 to do the walk. The funds would help find a cure for breast cancer.

“It’s one of the most positive experiences I’ve ever had,” she said.

In fact, it was so positive that she’s doing it again this weekend, Aug. 4, 5 and 6.

But this time, raising the money seemed more daunting. It didn’t feel right to go back to the same friends and relatives for contributions.

Then she had the idea to let her jewelry raise the money for her.

Maietta designs jewelry and sells it at craft fairs, on her Web site and in places like Touch of Elegance salon in Tewksbury. Clusters of beads in subtle colors decorate her bracelets, necklaces, earrings and watches.

“I started out making jewelry for my sisters and for myself, and people would buy it off my body,” she said, extending a tanned arm to display a bracelet of aqua, green and clear glass beads. Someone would compliment her on a bracelet, and when she said she made it, they would ask her to make one for them. “But I could never make the exact same thing, so I would just take it off my wrist and sell it to them right there,” she said.

Her hobby grew into a business, heather M design.

She created a special line of jewelry to raise money for this year’s Breast Cancer 3-Day. Proceeds go toward the $2,200 she needs for the walk, and each piece with its pink ribbon motif raises more than just money.

“If someone is wearing jewelry with a pink ribbon, it raises awareness,” she said. “Raising the money is the hardest part, but doing it in conjunction with my business makes it a no-brainer.”

It’s a wonder she could find any time to do all that’s on her plate. In addition to making jewelry and selling it at craft shows on weekends, she works full time for the Arlington Department of Recreation while writing a dissertation for her doctorate in Education Administration and Community Leadership.

“The busier I am, the better I am, the more organized I am with my time,” she said.

Maietta was moved to do something for breast cancer research after her grandmother had a mastectomy that left her with limited use of her arm due to nerve damage.

“I have two sisters and a niece. I did it for them, my grandmother, my mother and myself.”

Maietta walks with a team, Wild Women Originals, 200 members who do fundraising walks and other activities to promote breast cancer research. Since 2002, they have raised over $1.9 million. Last year Maietta organized a craft fair with her team to help others raise money for the walk.

Lynn Ostberg, a WWO team captain, said, “With all the craft shows she does, Heather always has information about our team. More people find us through her.”

Maietta began preparing for this weekend’s walk last fall. She trains about 35 miles a week, not only for general fitness, but to toughen her feet so she can walk 60 miles over three days without blisters.

“Getting ready for this walk is like when I was planning my wedding,” she said, married to a Watertown firefighter.

“All the preparation, raising the money was difficult and the training is difficult. But it’s exciting now that it’s really happening. I look forward to doing it at last.”

Read the full article here.

Heather M Design website can be found here.

Team Wild Women Originals website can be found here.

Cool Down St. Louis will host its fifth annual Cool Down Weekend at Busch Stadium two hours before the Cardinals-Brewers games begin on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

About 150 volunteers dressed in yellow caps and holding yellow buckets will collect donations for the organization to provide air conditioners and pay electric bills for the elderly, disabled and needy.

The drive raised almost $20,000 last year.

Read the full article here.

[T]he Golf Ball Drop steadily pulls the fun in fundraising up a notch or two, using a helicopter to disburse 1,000 balls from overhead within moments.

According to event organizer Christina Austin, who is the YMCA of Greater Nashua’s administrative assistant, a former employee came up with this cool fundraising idea, which has grown in popularity each year. The rules are simple and the prizes plentiful.

The thousand golf balls will be dropped from a helicopter owned by Bob Clouthier of CR Helicopters of Nashua at an altitude of 500 feet above an area set up as a golf green at Camp Sargent. Balls are numbered to correspond with each purchase. Should your ball land a hole-in-one, you’ll go home $1,000 richer. There’s a $100 prize for the ball that lands closest to the pin, $75 for balls two through five that are closest to the pin, $50 for the sixth-closest to the pin and $50 for the ball that lands farthest from the pin.

How do you get in on the fun? Balls are being sold at the Nashua and Merrimack YMCAs at $10 each. Anyone who buys five balls will get a sixth one free.

Proceeds will benefit the YMCA’s Y Cares Financial Assistance Program, which lends support to individuals and families in the community who are living on fixed or limited incomes and can’t afford to pay for Y programs and services.

Read the full article here.

When horses young or old get sick, sometimes the easy option is to have the animal put down.

Sue Balla, president and co-founder of Field of Dreams Horse Rescue, says that instead, with a little love and a lot of help, those animals still can have a long life ahead of them.

However, rescuing horses that need a home and rehabilitation isn’t easy, either.

[A]rea businesses and families [help] by dropping their change into a Pennies for Ponies jar. The change-gathering effort will help pay for feed, rehabilitation and bedding for the animals, as well as the day-to-day costs of housing them.

Families also can become involved by collecting their spare change to donate to the horses.

The family that collects the most money will receive a day with the horses, a photo of the animals now at Field of Dreams, horse-themed books and note cards.

[…]

One St. Charles girl, Sarah Anderson, had friends and family donate money to the rescue rather than buy her a birthday gift, Balla said. That effort alone brought in $360 for the horses.

Read the full article here.