By Padma and Sabya
This fall, Troop 2123 hosted a brunch fundraiser, which was the troop's first fundraiser event. It took months of planning and effort from the adult leaders, scouts, and also the leads of this fundraiser.
At the fundraiser, people could come and enjoy a delicious, homemade buffet meal for $12. All profits went towards the Fremont Human Services Department who used it to provide resources for the homeless community.
The Planning Process
When our troop first decided on hosting a service event, it was all the way back in March. Originally, we had voted on selling baked goods at Lake Elizabeth. Believing should market to the super fit, health nut population of Lake Elizabeth, we heavily researched keto cookies and tasty protein bars to sell.
However, this idea quickly dwindled as we realized it was illegal to sell things at Lake Elizabeth. At this point, our fundraiser was set to be in a month or two in May, and we scrambled to find a place to host it.
We then stumbled upon the idea of a pancake breakfast, which many other troops in the area had already done. We quickly realized that setting one up for May was unachievable and moved it to the next scouting year in September.
From there, our planning process took many ups and downs. We spent hours perfecting details of the menu, the prices, and even social media posts. Each decision meant constant back and forth between us, the leads, the adult leaders, and the troop.
We knew from the beginning that the planning process had to be the most thorough part of the entire fundraiser. This meant calculating the individual costs of each ingredient in each dish so we knew how much to price it. It also meant sending constantly sending emails, tweaking details, and making very detailed spreadsheets.
During our planning process, we also faced a lot of obstacles. Things were constantly changing and it was our job to figure out how we could make it work.
Originally, the date of the fundraiser kept moving as we couldn't secure the venue. Then, we had to manage how people could buy tickets, debating many different options before deciding on a Google Form.
However, the biggest obstacle we had to deal with was what organization we would donate to.
We originally wanted to donate money to an organization in that provided aid to those in Ukraine. We soon found out that as a non-profit, BSA troops can't donate money. We then settled on donating period products to a club at a local high school and started planning our fundraiser with the vague hope that this club even existed, though we realized that wasn't super realistic. After some digging, we found our perfect match, the Fremont Human Services department! We settled on purchasing items for their Mobile Clean Start Unit, which provided basic hygiene to homeless people who might not have had access to it.
Highlights
From previously volunteering at the Disability Resource Festival, our troop had the wonderful opportunity of collaborating with the Fremont Mayor, Lily Mei! The scouts got to sit and eat with her and she was kind enough to visit our fundraiser.
We're so grateful for Mayor Mei and Officer Manczuk-Hannay's support in the fundraiser.
It's truly amazing for our very first fundraiser to have such prominent guests and be featured on the FRC Newsletter!
Special Thanks & Acknowledgements
In total, we raised $2300 and served more than 100 people! We are so incredibly thankful to everyone who pitched in, from everyone who invited their friends and family to dine, all our volunteers, and everyone who donated.
Special thank you to Ms. Sudhir, Ms. Falari, and Ms. Saravanan for guiding us through the planning process.
Thank you to all of the adults who cooked or volunteered for this fundraiser. We couldn't have done it without your efforts.
Thank you to Joshitha for contacting so many people and making such a large contribution to the donations.
Thank you to Mayor Lily Mei for inspiring us and taking the time out of her busy schedule to contribute to the fundraiser.
Thank you to Troop 2123 for working so hard during the fundraiser and and listening to our frantic bossy butts.
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