Fund Raisers I have Known- Part #1

It really started when the bears were in elementary school. I had done a walkathon for several years in a row at the Bonaventure Hotel where I worked in the accounting department, but that was just getting pledges and then walking with your co-workers and then going around and collecting the cash afterward. I don't even recall what kind of money I raised for that. In the bears elementary school, there was a group of mostly Moms that were organized as "Friends of xxxxx School" designed to raise money. They sold script for grocery stores and sold magazines and gift wrapping paper. Every year they had a fair where there were rides and activities and food and a silent auction. I thought this was great fun. All the Moms were in their thirties and good-looking. So I volunteered to do the Silent Auction. Little did I know. The first cool thing that happened was that one of the Moms was the art curator for a large banking concern in LA. They had just bought out their competitor and were closing all those duplicate branches. I get a call and I drive over to the Marina- the Mom wants to know if I'd be interested in some artwork to auction. She has maybe seventy framed prints from all those closed banks. I take them all. Make several trips back and forth- I figure if I just get 5 bucks a piece for the them, that's maybe $350.00. I'm on my road to riches.

Then you have to have gift baskets. Each class made one and wrapped them up. I sent out flyers, drove around to pick up people's stuff. Wrote letters to corporations that were known to donate to school. Came up with In-N-Out Coupons and tshirts, Rhino Records CD sets, Gift Certificates for dinners and restaurants and Movie Tickets and Play Productions and Music Classes and Gymnastics and Beauty parlors and on and on. A friend brought a couple of concrete outdoor candle holders that he couldn't sell at his garage sale. I cleaned them up and sat them in front of a $300.00 Crystal vase and got $40.00 for them. There was one Mom that worked in Beverly Hills in an upscale shop and hit up all the neighboring shops for designer things.

Then there is the whole process of creating bid sheets and attaching them to the item and then closing the auction and collecting everyone's money at the end. It's a whole lot of work and almost impossible to do on your own. There were two Moms and I that headed up the various overall fair activities, with me doing mostly the Silent Auction. I raised 10K on my auction the first year, and I didn't even know what I was doing.

Oh, and you have to be there at 5 in the morning and you are always one of the last ones to leave at 6 that evening.