Campaigning for Children
Now that the AB Invisible Children club is fully established, the club can complete some last-minute fundraising for Invisible Children’s nationwide Schools for Schools competition. Schools for Schools is an annual competition in which schools across the nation compete to raise money for eleven partner schools in Uganda. Schools which raise the most money within their region will have the opportunity to send one of their students to Uganda to see exactly how their donations help make a difference in the lives of others. With this year’s competition drawing to a close, Invisible Children needs a final fundraiser to finish the year with a bang. Their last event, known as the 15.48 Campaign, was largely successful, raising about five thousand dollars in a span of only two weeks. The campaign’s goal was simple: AB needed to receive about $15.48 from every student at the school to raise thirty thousand dollars, the amount raised by last year’s Schools for Schools winner.
The campaign, which began on December 3, 2009, consisted of two main parts. The first portion was held in ABRHS’s cafeteria, where members of Invisible Children set up a booth. For two weeks, generous passersby donated to the diligent members of the club with change left over from their lunch. Dollar by dollar, students continued to donate money to help support one of the school’s newest clubs. Students donated a diverse range of money to the fundraiser: while some chipped in several quarters, others gave twenty-dollar bills, and some even wrote checks out to ABIC for one hundred dollars. To commemorate their donation, ABIC allowed those who donated more than $15.48 to write their name on Invisible Children’s “Wall of Fame” to inspire other students to follow their footsteps. The second part of the campaign was a book drive. Club members worked hard to collect old books not only from families, friends, and neighbors, but also from many other AB students. Afterwards, the members of Invisible Children collected all the books and carefully packaged them into boxes to send to Invisible Children for the competition.
While Invisible Children’s $15.48 Campaign did garner money from the AB community, the real impact of the campaign was Invisible Children’s ability to spread their community service enthusiasm and spirit to the rest of the Acton-Boxborough. Students responded positively to the campaign, praising it for its originality. Alison Wu, a senior at ABRHS, comments that “ [the $15.48 fundraiser] seemed fairly successful. From the banner of signatures of those who donated, you could tell many people were interested in helping others.” When asked about the success of the fundraiser, she replied, “I think Invisible Children did a great job advertising…it’s pretty original. The fact that we helped people in need outside of our own community shows that AB really cares.” Several others praised the campaign’s ambitious goal, noting Invisible Children’s passionate efforts to make the fundraiser a success. Says Michael Wu, a junior at AB, “The idea of each student donating $15.48 to reach the goal was pretty cool. The club’s ambitious goal was a key factor in the fundraiser’s achievement. Also, the novelty of having the burden of the goal equally distributed among everyone made people want to contribute their part, to not let down the school as a whole.”
AB had a large amount of success among students, and the school managed to secure second place in its region. AB’s Invisible Children will host several more fundraisers to start raising money for the Schools for Schools competition of 2010. Look out, AB, for Invisible Children’s next fundraiser!
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