EXCITING NEWS!!

Hello everyone!! 

I know we have neglected this blog for over a year now, but we have some exciting news: WE ARE DOING THIS PROJECT AGAIN!! We are so excited!! Round 2, here we come!!

For those of you who are just tuning in and are not familiar with our project, we will give you a quick recap: Essentially, two best friends, Kelly and Carolyn, had to do a senior project. We knew we wanted to do something that helped people and gave back to the community, after all blessings we have received in our lives. We worked with a company called Kidsave which is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization that works to find families and long-term connections for older youth growing up in orphanages and foster care worldwide. Their Weekend Miracles program operates in Los Angeles County and helps foster youth, ages 9-17, find permanent families through a weekend hosting program. We worked through their Weekend Miracles Program and hosted a scavenger hunt, titled “The Amazing Race” in an open air mall. We planned everything, from the food to the clues to the location, and the event was extremely successful. We had approximately 80 people who came, ranging from volunteers to the foster kids to the potential parents. 

It has been a fun and exciting year since our project. Both Carolyn and I just finished our freshman year in college. From having interesting roommates, to joining different clubs and sororities, to experiencing surprisingly delicious dining hall food, we had a lot of new adventures. Even though we were only an hour away from each other, we were not used to the separation (we are best friends after all!) and made sure to frequently visit each other. Now, it is summer and Carolyn has an internship and I am starting summer school in August. Without the craziness of school and all nighters, we were reminiscing on our high school days. We immediately realized one of the best decisions we made was our senior project. The results were extremely rewarding with 9 out of 12 kids being matched with a host family and 4 out of 5 kids getting a step closer in the adoption process. One of the boys even said it was the best day he had the entire year. That really pulled at our heartstrings. Our project was even mentioned by the principal of our school during her graduation speech!

So, Carolyn and I decided to contact Kidsave again to see if we could repeat our project. It turns out that the lady at Kidsave who helped us with our project last year is no longer working there, but rather someone else. However, she had heard about our project and loved the idea of us redoing it! So, the planning began...

We contacted and had a meeting with the manager of the mall again and asked him if he was willing to host our project. He agreed considering the project went so well last time. He is providing the area, chairs, tables, and the stores that we can host our clues in, all for no cost. But speaking of cost...

Right now, Carolyn and I are stuck on the fundraising part. There is no FUN in FUNdraising...trust us. Last time we did our project, Carolyn’s father helped us with the fundraising part because he is efficient in the business world. Now, he is encouraging us to  figure it out on our own so we can learn. (Gosh darn parents and having the best intentions for their kids). Well we certainly have learned a lot: We learned that secretaries can lie to our faces about their managers being “on a phone conference call” or “in a meeting.” People on the phone have put me on hold for longer than I wish to say while “asking their manager” if they would be willing to donate. Needless to say, we have heard a lot of big fat “no’s.”

 However, we are not going to get discouraged. We have had some success. We learned that fundraising is a lot about connections and who you know. We are going to try to apply for a grant through my college which gives money to independent community service projects. Carolyn and I also sent out about 50 emails to local businesses in our area politely asking for donations. Just this morning I woke up and saw that one replied saying he was interested in donating! That was probably the most beautiful email I’ve ever received. 

Well, we will let you know how the journey continues. Our project is scheduled for August 18th. Until then...

~Kelly and Carolyn 

THE EVENT!

Hi everyone!!

It’s been awhile since we posted and we are going to update everyone on how the event went!

First of all, the event exceeded our expectations! Carolyn and I were so worried that something was going to go wrong, that we were going to lose a clue or that the kids simply would not enjoy our scavenger hunt. But everything turned out perfectly!! Here is a recap on what happened:

8:30 AM: Kelly goes over to Carolyn’s house to get all the supplies together and load up the car

9:00 AM: We arrive at the mall and start setting up! We also get the sandwiches from Subway and store those away.

9:30 AM: Carolyn and Kelly load up all the ice breaker bags full of candy and write out the ice breaker questions. Just picture about 10 different bags of candy all splayed out on the counter….heaven! (Kelly totally stole like ½ of it…JK!)

10:00 AM: Our friends/volunteers arrive and help set up the tables all around the mall courtyard. We put up the streamers and blew up the balloons to spruce up the area.

10:30 AM: Carolyn and I lead the volunteers around the mall and show them were they need to be stationed in order to help with the scavenger hunt.

11:00 AM: The kids arrive! (YAY!) Volunteers help check them in.

11:15 AM: Ms. Prince helps lead the first ice breaker where the kids/potential parents go in a big circle and introduce themselves

11:25 AM: Ms. Prince breaks the kids/potential parents into teams. Then, they do the candy ice breaker game.

11:45 AM: The scavenger hunt begins!! This was the part that Carolyn and I were most worried about. Would the clues be too hard? Too easy? Would they finish within 30 minutes? Will it be fun for them? But as the scavenger hunt was going on Carolyn and I were running around and seeing the teams go to the different clues and they looked like they were having a blast! I think one of the highlights for me was seeing the kids try to pick up the M&Ms with chopsticks which was especially hard because they were so slippery. It forced them to work together with the potential parents and it made me happy to see that bond that was starting to form, no matter how small.

12:30 PM: The teams arrive back tired as ever (Pink team was the winner in case you were wondering J It consisted of 3 girls and as Carolyn says, “Nobody knows a mall better than a girl!”). Lunch is served! It consisted of Subway sandwiches, fruit, potato salad, and chips. For dessert we had Crumbs cupcakes and cookies.

1:30 PM: The end of the day! Carolyn, the volunteers, and I helped disassemble and load things in the car.

Cheers to an awesome day!

Kelly and Carolyn 

Last Day of Preparations YAY!

Hi everbody!

It’s been a VERY busy weekend to say  the least! We have been at Carolyn’s house for 10+ hours working away.  Here’s a little picture of what happened:

Thursday: Carolyn and Ms. Prince talk on the phone to discuss last minute details of the project (the clues, the tables, the food, etc).

Friday: Kelly has been battling illness but she comes to school in order to help Carolyn (isn't she just sooo generous with her time even tho it is her senior project :p).  We picked up a megaphone from our school’s athletic director (really excited to use it…!). We also pick up 100+ cookies from our cafeteria for our event. Our school kindly donated these cookies to us and we are very grateful!

Friday night: Kelly goes to Carolyn’s house and the work begins! We begin by cutting all the paper in the paper cutter to make it fit in the printer. That’s 80 sheets of paper that we cut! After that, we printed all the clues, in 8 different colors. Then, we had to cut all those clues out too. Luckily our friend Kristy and Carolyn’s cousin were there to help us with all this work. While this was happening, we perfected all of our activities (charades, the song game, trivia, and the ice breaker). Carolyn’s mom went out and did some shopping buying the jump ropes and chopsticks. Not to mention, while all of this was happening, Carolyn’s family was preparing for a party at their house on Saturday where over 200 people are coming! Crazy!

Here are some pictures from our night!

Well now it is Saturday morning and we are still working! We put all the clues in separate enveloped and organized them by team and in chronological order.

Things still on our to-do list:

Inquire about the tables at the event

Make the poster for the sponsors

Make sure all the food is coming to the event

Print the instructions for the activities for the volunteers

Right now it is go, go, go!  The event is actually tomorrow!!!! It’s so crazy! We are unbelievably excited and hope the kids like our event.

Well that’s all for now!

Kelly and Carolyn

Clue

Hello all :)

After taking the math test of death (honestly I don't understand why we have to learn this stuff, it's not like we will ever use it again!), Carolyn and I drove to the mall area after school and shopped till we dropped! Just kidding... Although, we did write all of our clues!! I personally feel much less stressed because now we have all of the clues down on paper and will be printing them out this weekend. We then went to Carolyn's house and tested out the clues on Carolyn's family to see if they could guess them... "One of our clues was: "Why do you build me up, build me up ______ baby, just to let me down..." however no one in her family has heard that song so they did not know that the answer was buttercup :( (really? that song is a CLASSIC...people just don't know good music anymore...*sigh* what is this world coming to?)

Right now we are still trying to negotiate the food issue and next week we'll make our way to costco in order to make our purchases for the big day! (Let's hope we make it out alive because it is soooo crowded)

We honestly can't believe it's in a week...time flies by! (but we can pull it off)



And now we will leave you with the cutest comic we have ever seen that is related to scavenger hunts:




~Kelly and Carolyn

Please Do Not Take Care of the Children....?

Hola amigos,

Carolyn and I are sitting in our school library currently and devoting only free block to our senior project (we are such good little students). We called a sandwich shop that is located in the mall where we are doing our event and are interested in having them cater our event. The lady that we talked to was so sweet and she even read our blog which is so exciting! (soon we shall become famous...just kidding, but we do hope to raise more awareness for our cause) Hopefully we can get an estimate tomorrow and continue our budgeting with our limited knowledge. Hey you have to learn somehow right?

Furthermore, Carolyn and I created a cram schedule for all the things we have left to do (though we are making great progess the list never seems to end....hmmm sounds a lot like homework). We are planning on going to the mall area and writing/printing all of the clues on Thursday, so wish us luck (Carolyn's the creative one in our dynamic duo, so i'll be running around finding our location, fun!) We are so thankful to all the stores that are willing to host the clues and we really couldn't do it without them. Also, we thought of some activities to do during the race. Our ideas include, "Finish that Lyric," Charades, Jump-rope, and picking up M&Ms with chopsticks (inspired by our recent China trip!). We also thought of some great ice-breakers to do at the beginning of the event where we have a bag filled with candy and then a legend on the bag that says what each candy signifies, so if you pull out a nerds then you have to tell your group your favorite book. Doesn't that sound fun? I mean who doesn't like candy?

Keep you in touch with our ideas!

A funny sign we saw in China :-)

 

Kelly and Carolyn

Budgets Can Be Fun!

Hello everyone!!!

A short update!

Carolyn and I met up today after school to create a budget. It was the first time I have done a budget before (this was Carolyn's thousandth time... ms. business-woman...aka show off) so it was a good learning experience for me. We figured out the materials we would need to run the event, like paper, food, table cloths, nametags etc and how much they would cost. Let's just say it's not cheap, but luckily we have some corporations that we are planning on turning to for a donation. And with our dashing good looks, I'm sure they will give us some money....or we will just have to resort to begging on the street.... Just kidding! :)

Right now, we're feeling a bit stressed but, nonetheless, are excited to see how things come together! We are currently waiting for the final list of stores that will be participating in the event and once we get that together we'll go back to the mall area and start working on our clues.

For now, we will leave you with a picture that represents our situation:




Just kidding! Although that's what we wish was happening to us....


~Kelly and Carolyn

Day 4....5, 6, 7, 8....

Hey everybody!

Sorry it took us so long to blog. We have been working hard on our project and have recently come back from  our Interim trip to China. Here's the update on what we've done.

We encountered a couple of hardships regarding the fundraising. First of all, our school refused to let us hold a small bake sale because apparently foster kids aren't worth the cause. But, raising money for debate sweatshirts is more important... We sure LOVE our school. We tried to negotiate, however, we were lectured and were told it was against school rules to raise money for our senior project at school. They told us that if we wanted money from our school, we would have to get it from the school itself from the board of trustees. That's WAY easier than a simple bake sale... (guess no one will ever try my brownie recipe :( )

We also attempted to hold a fundraising night at an ice cream store in town and after repeated visits, emails, and phone calls, we have not received a response. They should pay for our gas money considering how many times we've driven over there! But who's complaining...??

Carolyn is now contacting specific companies who are willing to donate. Yay! We are also depending upon food and other necessities being donated.

We have some good news as well: Our location has been secured which is great! We also met multiple times with the general manager and things are working out just as planned. We have been doing lots of emailing with their Marketing Director trying to figure out the specifics.

Lastly, we met with a professional event coordinator who told us what to do regarding getting stuff donated and how the layout of the day would work.

Well, we're off to make a gazillion phone calls to get donations!!

<3,

Kelly and Carolyn