Well, it’s been quite a ride, setting up and organizing a fund raiser event like the Kick-a-thon at the Black Dragon School. Going back to the start, it was a very rough time at the school. We were on the verge of closing our doors and teaching kung fu in the park. I am not sure how many students you need to keep the doors open at a martial arts school, but I know we didn’t have enough to do it. We got very lucky when Stephen Tomko stepped in and worked with Ike Bear to take ownership of the school.
Back around early June is when I spoke with Ike Bear, the head instructor, about doing a fund raiser event, which was shortly after I was informed that we’re not closing. And as the way it is with Ike, when you ask about doing an event or organizing something, the person asking is given the responsibility of doing it. I had never done anything like this solo, so it’s been an interesting learning experience.
The charities we usually work with are ones who raise money for the armed forces. Last time we worked with A Soldiers Wish List, which put together care packages and sent them to soldiers stationed over seas. This time, we were supporting Camp Hope, a non-profit that was setting up a hunting lodge for combat wounded veterans to hunt, fish, hike, all of the things that we might take for granted. I got in touch with Camp Hope and explained that we were doing a fund raiser and wanted to donate the money to them.
We have done events in the past, kick-a-thons, conventions, and we always had a small attendance. So I pondered some ways to get more people to come to an event. People who normally would not be interested in something like this. I had been talking to one of the local radio stations about getting the school an informational booth at one of the music festivals, and decided to find out what they need to come broadcast live from an event.
Which, turns out, is a load of money.
So I put that on the back burner while I pondered more ideas, that would involve less money. I love music, all kinds of music. So I decided I would try some bands, ask them if they would be willing to donate something, anything. This idea lead me to doing a silent auction, with donations from anyone I could get something from. Originally we were just going to do a raffle, with people buying tickets and putting them in for the items they wanted to win. But I started to get a lot of donations, and the raffle seemed to be more time consuming than we liked, so we moved it to a silent auction. And tickets are a major pain to deal with.
One musician, Paul Thorn, bless his managers’ heart, sent us 10 copies of his new album. Just for being polite and asking. Here Come The Mummies sent us each of their studio albums and their live DVD. This was a great start.
So I thought about who else to contact, and eventually the list of people and businesses I contacted was over 400. I kept a list of people I contacted, and the ones who replied and those who didn’t.
I figured, the worst anyone will say is No, so why not ask as many people as I can. So at the time of the fund raiser, twenty one companies had made donations. And I contacted all kinds of places. Toy makers, book publishers, local breweries, food companies, candle makers, clothing stores. I seemed to have the best luck with smaller businesses. Not local ones, but smaller ones.
Not to say that some local businesses didn’t come through, several did with some great donations for the silent auction. But if I had limited myself to only local businesses, I would not have half the items we had to auction.
While I was working on that portion, I thought about what else would interest people to come out and see. I am a big believer that all martial arts schools should be open and communicate with each other in a local area. I know the economy is terrible, and everyone is competing for students, but we are all trying to achieve the same goal, of getting more people active, training in the martial arts, and to keep a school open.
So I put together a letter explaining what we are doing, and contacted every school in the area I could. There are some great schools around our area, and I wanted anyone who was willing to come demonstrate their art to join us. I will never bad mouth another school, or another Art, and sometimes encourage people to look at different schools and styles, to make sure they find something they like. But there almost seems to be this refusal to work with other schools, at least with events at that school.
We did a convention about two years back, held at a VFW hall, and about five different schools came out to demonstrate for that. That was amazing, and everyone had a good time, but we had a very small turn out. So maybe it’s the fact that our fund raiser was held at our school, that most of the other schools didn’t want to participate.
I did try getting one of the local shopping malls to let us use space there for the event. They never did get back to me. It seemed logical to me, it would bring more people to the mall itself, helping the stores there, and the mall is more centrally located than our school is, which would hopefully bring more people to the event. Maybe next time.
Back around early June is when I spoke with Ike Bear, the head instructor, about doing a fund raiser event, which was shortly after I was informed that we’re not closing. And as the way it is with Ike, when you ask about doing an event or organizing something, the person asking is given the responsibility of doing it. I had never done anything like this solo, so it’s been an interesting learning experience.
The charities we usually work with are ones who raise money for the armed forces. Last time we worked with A Soldiers Wish List, which put together care packages and sent them to soldiers stationed over seas. This time, we were supporting Camp Hope, a non-profit that was setting up a hunting lodge for combat wounded veterans to hunt, fish, hike, all of the things that we might take for granted. I got in touch with Camp Hope and explained that we were doing a fund raiser and wanted to donate the money to them.
We have done events in the past, kick-a-thons, conventions, and we always had a small attendance. So I pondered some ways to get more people to come to an event. People who normally would not be interested in something like this. I had been talking to one of the local radio stations about getting the school an informational booth at one of the music festivals, and decided to find out what they need to come broadcast live from an event.
Which, turns out, is a load of money.
So I put that on the back burner while I pondered more ideas, that would involve less money. I love music, all kinds of music. So I decided I would try some bands, ask them if they would be willing to donate something, anything. This idea lead me to doing a silent auction, with donations from anyone I could get something from. Originally we were just going to do a raffle, with people buying tickets and putting them in for the items they wanted to win. But I started to get a lot of donations, and the raffle seemed to be more time consuming than we liked, so we moved it to a silent auction. And tickets are a major pain to deal with.
One musician, Paul Thorn, bless his managers’ heart, sent us 10 copies of his new album. Just for being polite and asking. Here Come The Mummies sent us each of their studio albums and their live DVD. This was a great start.
So I thought about who else to contact, and eventually the list of people and businesses I contacted was over 400. I kept a list of people I contacted, and the ones who replied and those who didn’t.
I figured, the worst anyone will say is No, so why not ask as many people as I can. So at the time of the fund raiser, twenty one companies had made donations. And I contacted all kinds of places. Toy makers, book publishers, local breweries, food companies, candle makers, clothing stores. I seemed to have the best luck with smaller businesses. Not local ones, but smaller ones.
Not to say that some local businesses didn’t come through, several did with some great donations for the silent auction. But if I had limited myself to only local businesses, I would not have half the items we had to auction.
While I was working on that portion, I thought about what else would interest people to come out and see. I am a big believer that all martial arts schools should be open and communicate with each other in a local area. I know the economy is terrible, and everyone is competing for students, but we are all trying to achieve the same goal, of getting more people active, training in the martial arts, and to keep a school open.
So I put together a letter explaining what we are doing, and contacted every school in the area I could. There are some great schools around our area, and I wanted anyone who was willing to come demonstrate their art to join us. I will never bad mouth another school, or another Art, and sometimes encourage people to look at different schools and styles, to make sure they find something they like. But there almost seems to be this refusal to work with other schools, at least with events at that school.
We did a convention about two years back, held at a VFW hall, and about five different schools came out to demonstrate for that. That was amazing, and everyone had a good time, but we had a very small turn out. So maybe it’s the fact that our fund raiser was held at our school, that most of the other schools didn’t want to participate.
I did try getting one of the local shopping malls to let us use space there for the event. They never did get back to me. It seemed logical to me, it would bring more people to the mall itself, helping the stores there, and the mall is more centrally located than our school is, which would hopefully bring more people to the event. Maybe next time.
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