The past month or so I have been working on them so much and putting a lot of effort in them! I am happy to say that they are both complete and I have some breathing room now!
The coffee came on Thursday afternoon at work at 2pm and I sorted 228 bags of coffee straight through until 4:30. I was putting the coffee in bags according to who sold the coffee and labeling each bag and putting a sticker on the bag stating that this was a fundraiser. We had one slight slip up when I miscounted the amount of ground decaf coffee I needed, but we still had some from the order we had gotten earlier, so crisis adverted! One thing that was very interesting though was the count of coffee was not correct. Grounds for Change sent us 15 extra bags of coffee, Agate Pass and Peru, and they said to just sell it as we normally would, that will be a 100% profit for service trips, which is great! I am very pleased about this coffee fundraiser, there is talk that we will do it again in the spring, but this time selling tea as an option as well. I have learned so much from doing this. I have a fairly strong fundraising background and have been doing it since I was 15 with Caps for Kids. Thinking back to when I was in high school, how did I do Caps for Kids? It seems like so long ago and a complete blur, but I did it and raised a lot of money for children with cancer. But how did I do that? I remember vividly watching the Minnesota Twins game on TV and Mike Redmond came on talking about Red's Rally Caps for Kids and how you pay one dollar to wear a cap to school and all proceeds go to getting a child an autographed hat or scarf by their favorite celebrity. I looked over to my mom and told her I was going to do it- and I did! I'm not completely sure how I went through the motions to do it though. I remember contacting the superintendent and going through all the different promotions like television, radio, and newspapers and asking for donation requests from local businesses. Grounds for Change seemed new to me, but its definitely not. I think a lot of my eeriness on it was that it had been awhile since I did a fundraiser and I am not just a high school girl anymore, I am trying to build my professional career and if this failed, it would fall back on me. That was more incentive for me to do well and be as completely organized as I absolutely could be. I have learned a lot about working with students through fundraising because this is dealing with selling and receiving money daily, whereas Caps for Kids was a one day event. I definitely see programming and fundraising in my future, I love being able to plan for something and then get the satisfaction of seeing it turn out in the end. That is the main reason why I loved Mavericks After Dark at Minnesota State so much. Mavericks After Dark is a once a month, late night activity, that happens in our student union to reduce risky behavior but set up, the event, and take down all happens within 7 hours of each other and to me that is very fulfilling. MAD is arguably the most stressful IMPACT program but I enjoyed it a lot and learned so much in the year I did it.
good, we have a lot of strong voices but we only practice once a week on Thursdays so it was stressful to learn. For the past couple weeks we did choir rehearsals twice a week but that is still not much! During the performance, we had a harpist, slideshow, Christmas trees, candlelight, and soloist. I have mentioned time and time again that I love the ladies in choir, they are what make me keep wanting to go back. I love spending time with Tina, silly Sue, and Judy. They make me feel like I am definitely wanted, I may not have the best voice in the world but it is not horrible and they give me praise on the times I succeed and then help me when I am struggling- I am lucky to have them! Today at service is the last time I will sing with them until the New Year, that seems like a long time from now but the time I am gone, I will be at home!
I GO HOME TO IOWA THIS WEEK! I have been saying that all day, with that much enthusiasm and my bags are packed, minus my daily use items! I have taking the train from Harrisburg to Philly at 9:15pm on Wednesday and then hanging out in the airport until 4am when I can go back through security and check my bags in. My plane leaves at 6:20am Thursday. During that time in Philly, I will most likely sit on my bags and watch movies on my laptop, I doubt I will sleep much, if at all, but it doesn't really matter because I will be going home to see my friends and family! I have been waiting for this moment for 4 months and have been counting down the days since 130 days to go.
Also, one of the people that help the Sycamore House so much that we care about dearly is having some major health issues and scares. Reggie was diagnosed this week with Acute Leukemia and is rather scared right now. Reggie works for the school and has a cleaning business that cleans it every night, he also works for the city of Harrisburg with security, he does the sound at every service and helps maintain crowd control at Tuesday Community Dinners. Reggie is always very enthusiastic and caring. He would also do anything for us, so please keep him in your thoughts!
I am not entirely sure if I will be writing a blog while I am home- I may do one when I get back to Harrisburg, so stayed tuned to what I decide to do. Just in case, here is a Christmas card that Ally made! The Sycamore House and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Much love,
Katie
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