We first heard about the Eliminate Project at the international convention in Las Vegas. It was overwhelming and impressive at the same time. To think there was such a devastating disease in the world and we could do something to help eliminate it!
Months later at the mid-year conference upstate, we heard about this project again. Now, we decided we had to do something more aggressive than just writing a check – we had to host a fundraiser. We immediately started to brainstorm – a thousand ideas came to us within minutes!
The first thing we did was create a flow chart listing all of the tasks, people responsible and timeline. We then hand-picked our committee, picking people we knew we could work well with and had the same level of commitment and passion we had. We picked a date several months out and we were off and running to our first fundraiser for The Eliminate Project.
Several weeks into the planning, we were busier than we ever imagined. We had five people on the committee – negotiating with a local restaurant to hold the event and furnish the food, contacting county dignitaries, other Kiwanis clubs, press, photographers, advertising, gathering donations from local businesses for our raffle, hiring a band, wrapping all the baskets, creating signage…the list seemed endless.
(Brochures we had printed for the event.)
Before we knew it, the night of the fundraiser was upon us. The one factor we never considered was the weather. Not only did it rain and flood local streets, there were hailstones the size of baseballs! In spite of that, about 75 people attended – the band played all night, people danced, food and drink flowed and the raffle tickets were selling like hot cakes. We were actually making money! When it was all over, we actually made a profit after all of our expenses were paid.
(Our raffle baskets.)
Now we could actually write a check for money that we worked so hard to raise for a very worthwhile cause. We could not be prouder of our accomplishments! Everyone walked away that night feeling very good about what they had done.
One more example of the Kiwanis family working together to help people in need!