The Birth of a Fund Raising Plan

Recognizing the importance of clean, safe drinking water, the Guatemalan Action Project students set their sights on raising money to provide eco-water filters to families in need, and support vital research to save the primary water source of the region, Lake Atitlán. Within the first couple of weeks of meeting, the Wallkill students set an ambitious fund raising goal at $1,000.00, and put together a fund raising plan that included several activities:

(a) A community-wide soda bottle & can return to help clean up their community and raise funds for Amigos. Even though this was a complicated project, the students collected a total of $143.85! It provided approximately 23.5% of all donations collected, and was also successful in raising community awareness & building community support amongst Wallkill faculty and the Wallkill Elementary School populations. The refundable soda bottle and can drive even rippled out to another Ulster County school district who participated by donating approximately $70 worth of refundable empty soda cans and water bottles! Bags & bags of soda bottles and cans came in to the elementary school locations.

Students worked very hard to promote this effort and designed a number of promotional flyers which were distributed through the three elementary school buildings, as well as through the middle school and community locations like the Wallkill Public Library. Thank you, Mary Lou Carolan, for lending your support and offering the library as a community collection site!

(b) Bake Sale – Special thanks to the students and their parents for baking treats which were sold at our bake sale during the “Guatemala Night” program in the Wallkill Middle School library.

(c) Guatemalan Photography Exhibit & Raffle - I was honored to donate a beautiful Guatemalan photo (matted & framed), along with several photo greeting card sets which were offered as raffle prizes for our “Guatemala Night” program. In addition, I set up a small exhibit of my Guatemalan photography and donated 50% of all proceeds back to the project. The photography was enjoyed by all and I thank all who supported the raffle, which raised $200.00. Photography sales provided an additional $75.00 towards our goal.