Contribution!!!

People love to contribute! They love to help out and feel great when they're able to be part of making a difference. So why is it so difficult to be on the other side? Accepting help from others is not as comfortable for most of us, myself included.

We had our first fundraising meeting this past Sunday. Our goal was to come up with fundraising ideas that would cost very little or nothing to put together, would reach a variety of people and be fun for all involved. We want to give people several options to be involved.
This could be through:

 Financial donation (trust account to be set up)
 Donate Airmiles
 Volunteer your time in creating/assisting at events
 Donate silent auction items or prizes
 Help by spreading the word of what we're up to, to all your friends and family

Our next step is of course putting our best ideas into action. To get this started, I'm opening up an informal trust account at TD Canada Trust. This will be in place in a couple days and will not only allow us to track and manage the funds we raise at various events but also allow people to make direct donations if that is their preference.

The two big fundraisers will be a BBQ Open house and an online silent auction.
A small team will work together on each of the events.

The open house will include a variety of activities (yoga classes, salsa lessons, informational talks, singing etc). The open house will also include a poker derby on bikes. Participants will pay a registration fee and receive a map of 5 locations. They will be given 1 playing card at each location to create their poker hand. When they return, their hand is entered into the poker game.

The Silent Auction will be like most other silent auctions but will take place online. This will allow people the ability to view and bid on items regardless of the time of day or their location.

If you are interested in helping the fundraising team with these ideas or if you would like to donate a product or service for the silent auction, please let me know.

After our first planning meeting, I feel I'm overcoming my reluctance to accept contribution from others. I like that we're giving people many ways to involve themselves. It gives people choice and gives them the opportunity to contribute in a way that works for them. It feels more balanced and has me feel much better about how this will get accomplished.

I'm grateful for the work that has already been started and excited to see how it all unfolds. I'll post more information as it becomes available.