Final Blog 15!

My SCORE experience overall was fun and helped me learn a lot. First off, I am not very good at taking criticism.  Not in that I don’t want to change my ways, but I think I get too emotional and caring about things when it’s not necessary and I should just focus on getting get the job  done.  Also, in the workforce you really can’t rely on other people, which we learned the hard way as a result of skate night.  I definitely over the course of the year learned a ton about human trafficking.  Now, when I see things on the news I listen up and don’t take them so lightly; terrible things like this happen close to home.  In the future, I would love to work for a nonprofit like Somaly Mam, but I really don’t think I would belong in the fundraising department; I want to be out there making a difference.  I obviously do not know what type of job I will obtain in the future but in 4 years if all goes well I should have obtained my Master’s Degree in Public Policy with my Bachelor’s in Political Science.  I hope to go on to law school after that and either work for the government or help run a nonprofit.  After doing my research paper, I think that if I were to work for a nongovernmental organization like Somaly Mam I would want it to have an education initiative, because people can only help themselves if they are educated enough to do so.

Blog 14

On the site we address the projects of the past, and the theme is laid out so that future students can easily transfer pages over to the “Past Projects” link and put the new project under “Current Project.”  Last year, the project was H2O for Life, so under the tab we wrote about the Class of 2012’s efforts:

Haiti is now the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and it still extremely affected by the earthquake in 2008. The biggest problem for the majority of Haitian people is the lack of sanitation and clean water. This in turn leads to massive breakouts of disease that can lead to the death of children. Saint Pierre School in Mirebalais, Haiti has an average of 2,000 students working in twenty classrooms and using four bathrooms, with no places to wash their hands. The school had no running water until Manchester Essex Global Issues class helped to change that.

H2O For life is a non-profit organization that builds water wells all around the world to give people access to clean water. Manchester Essex Regional High School was teamed up with H2O for Life who promised to match our goal of $6,500. The money we raised went to building and installing a water well for a school in Mirabalais, Haiti. This money allowed students at Saint Pierre School to have safe drinking water, improved sanitation, and education on hygiene.

We also have a section dedicated to past students who went on to work with humanitarian type things.  So, we featured Lindsay Rose who will be teaching children in Ghana for the summer, and Simon McIntosh who has been traveling the world working on green initiatives!

Blog 13

We came into class today frustrated about our event over the weekend.  Everybody was on edges, which just lead to conflicting ideas throughout the day.  Skate night was a complete failure.  Mother Nature didn’t really help us out on Saturday.  I can’t really blame people for not coming to skate on a 70 degree day because I didn’t really want to be there while all of my friends were beaching it, but since I was  I wish we made money.  It was very awkward being at the ice rink with just Nicole and the zamboni man.  He totally felt badly for us which made it even more uncomfortable.  Nicole and I did manage to sell baked goods to glittery girls leaving private skate lessons. 

Luckily, after exchanging a few checks of various amounts, the people at the rink decided not to charge us for the rental.  We really lucked out in this aspect because at least we weren’t losing money for the foundation.  They are mailing them back to my home address so I should have a check to void for Ms. Lumsden on the day of my presentation.  During my presentation I plan to reflect on what went wrong with this fundraiser and take the blame for my part in it.  I was extremely disappointed and embarrassed with the event, as was Nicole and we feel as though we have let the rest of the school and global issues community down by not reaching our goal.  Luckily we still have a few items to auction off within the school to hopefully make a couple hundred more dollars; bid away!

Blog 12

Next, we outlined in the Somaly Mam page the efforts that have been made this year by students to fundraise:

The 2012-2013 Global Issues class partnered with the Somaly Mam Foundation to fight against human trafficking. The class aimed to raise $15,000 which would rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate 5 young girls back into Cambodian society.  We also linked this page to the Somaly Mam Foundation site.

Restaurant Nights- The class hosted restaurant nights at various restaurants- Buffalo Wild Wings, Texas Roadhouse, and Giuseppe’s, all of which donated 10-20% of their profits to the cause if presented with a flyer. Cape Ann Pizza in Essex generously donated 100% of their profits on two occasions to the Gardner Project’s fundraising.

Dodgeball Tournaments- Two dodgeball tournaments were held afterschool for students by members of the Global Issues class. The cost per team to enter the tournament was $40, and participants had a chance to take on the defending champions who played in the tournament the year prior for H2O for Life.

Teacher Talent Show-The First Annual Teacher Talent Show was the Gardner Project’s biggest success. Teachers donated their time to perform for students and members of the community on their Friday night. The class profited $4,000 on ticket and refreshment sales, while spectators were entertained by faculty and staff members’ performances.

Other Fundraisers- Students sold raffle tickets to a Bruins game, for a car wash, for a staples gift card, and also sold ornaments to the elderly at the Holiday Luncheon for seniors. In addition, significant donations were given to the Gardner Project by community members. We thank all who helped us in our fundraising efforts throughout the year.

 

Blog 11

Here is the most recent content I have added to the site’s text:

This appears on the sidebar of the site: The Gardner Project is a student-run project focused on giving back to the global community. Manchester Essex Global Issues students participate in the Gardner Project annually, in partnership with a nongovernmental organization of their choice.

The About us section reads:

The Manchester-Essex Regional High School’s Global Issues class follows a curriculum that emphasizes current problems in the world. It contains units on Globalization, Human Rights, Human Trafficking, Promotion of Democracy, Population Growth, and Terrorism. Open discussion is key to the class, as it encourages students to face the emotions drawn forward by the material and critically think of a way to help solve the problem. The Gardner Project helps students apply information that is learned and search for a way to help those in need. Each year, the Gardner Project runs a student-lead fundraising assignment for a chosen nongovernmental organization (NGO). Students of the MERHS Global Issues Class research, present, and ultimately vote for, an NGO to raise money for that given year. The class then sets a monetary goal and organizes fundraisers in order to achieve the amount. One out of every five days is spent in class working on the Gardner Project, and additional work is done out of school to organize and run fundraising events.

It is important to no only relay to site users the issue and goal for the current year, but the fact that this is an ongoing project that students work on year in and year out with the help of Mr. Wallimann.

Blog 10

Despite Ms. Epp describing the Backstreet Wordpress theme to Nicole as “the Christmas present that seems perfect for someone but then is either way too expensive or has a crack or stain on it so you can’t buy it” and urging us not to show it to Wallimann for that very reason, we showed it to him.  And what do you know, he fell in love. So, I obviously forced Nicole to break the news to Ms. Epp that Backstreet was what we were going with.

She has been very helpful in showing us how to use Wordpress and getting things started theme-wise.  At this point, I am still in classes, therefore I work less hours than Nicole, so she is more focused on layout with me editing it when she is done, and I am more text and context focused.  I like the way the site  is coming out.  We recently added RSS feeds to the bottom where relevant news topics and links can be added each year based on the issue that the class is fighting against.  This year we have the New York Times on Human Rights, MEMO Coverage of Somaly Mam, the Somaly Mam site, and WorldBuzz (the debate site).  I think that this makes the site look pretty legit and professional, personally.  I am also in the process of creating new Twitter and Facebook pages for the Gardner Project which will be linked directly to the site via interactive icons.  Things are looking pretty good right now!

Blog 9

Like everything else, getting the e-mail out to the global issues kids was a real pain.  Seniors were never set up with an Aspen account, just their parents, so the only e-mails Mr. Wallimann has of students are those (like myself) who sneakily logged onto Aspen and changed the preferred e-mail to their own; I feel as though I can manage my own grades without my parents permanently in my business.  So, we went to Ms. Lumsden to get more e-mails but she has the same problem.  Next, we went to Ms. Lewis who has everybody’s e-mails but for whatever reason was unable to just give them to us to use.  She would have had to copy and paste the e-mail and send it out herself and we didn’t want to burden her with all of that work as it is always chaotic in the guidance department!

Nicole and I are also ferociously trying to create a website. I liked the theme we were using to lay it out, but it wasn’t completely user friendly.  Not to knock the MERSD site, but it was very similar to that in that people would have to click a lot of links just to get where they wanted to go.  So, it seems we are back to the drawing board theme-wise.  Nicole has one that she really likes called “Backstreet” that is like memo but black-and-white chic.  Ms. Epp has been very helpful in getting us started with the site, ans she said that it may be hard to work with, but we’ll see what happens!

Blog 8

We have still been discussing the car wash idea and I really think it could work! Some people still have dried salt on their cars from winter which is totally unacceptable. 

Nicole and I are responsible for rainsing about $2,500 to reach our goal with the skate night, so we are trying to get volunteers.  This e-mail is going to be sent out to global issues students:

Global Issues Students:

We need your help! As you know our goal as a class was to raise $15K for the Somaly Mam Foundation.  Currently, we have raised around $12,000.  SCORE Interns Nicole Brosch and Kelsi Field are planning a “Family Skate Night” fundraiser from 1-4pm on Sunday, May 18 in order to raise the remaining sum.  At the skate night a silent auction will be held.  So far here are the items we have:

-floating boat cooler

-Yamaha iPod speakers

-Hyatt Regency Boston accommodations for 2

-Who said they could get Red Sox tickets?

Right now, we are looking for a couple more big ticket items for the silent auction part of the fundraiser.  Also, we will be holding a bake sale, so we need volunteers to bake goodies for that day.  Lastly, we will need a few people to actually work at the fundraiser itself (selling tickets, watching silent auction items, and selling baked goods).  Please let us know if you would be willing to help out at any capacity (thekels@comcast.net or broschnicole@gmail.com)! And remember, it’s for sex slaves.

Thank you!

 

 

Blog 7

The Cape Ann Pizza night did not go as well as we had hoped.  There was apparently confusion between us and Cape Ann Pizza owners about whether or not flyers needed to be presented in order for the profits to be donated.  We were told that flyers would not be necessary when in fact they wanted them to be presented at the time of purchase.  All of the flyers we posted around both Manchester and essex said not to worry about bringing flyers so that may have hurt us.  I guess this was a learning experience for me to not take someone else’s word for something; I should have driven down to Cape Ann and found out what the scoop was.  Neverthless, we made $400 that night, which is $400 than we started with. 

We had been thinking about doing a car wash but decided against it.  Now that we didn’t make as much as we had banked on for Cape Ann, I am wishing that we could have planned one. We had tossed around the idea of doing one at the school, maybe like when there is youth soccer going on so that we could place flyers on the cars of parents telling them to drive to the upper lot for a donations only car wash.  I think that not having a set price and doing donations only for something like that is better because if there is a price people expect you to give them change with larger bills, whereas more could be donated by those people otherwise.

Kelsi: week 2, blog 3

Now we are beginning to get stressed.  It is time to start focusing not only on our skate night/car wash idea, but also on our website.  Nicole and I met with Mr. Jewett because we have to decide whether or not to use wordpress for the site.  We think that a Google site would be much easier as you basically just drag and copy everything in, but the sites are not veer yvisually appealling. But, using something like Wordpress could involve coding like HTML-5 which is way over my head.  So, we gave to browse through different Wordpress themes and try to find a simple one that also has enough effects.
   As for fundraising, Brittany Collens got us in contact with Cape Ann Pizza and they are willing to hold a day/night long fundrauser without flyers being presented.  They are kind enough to donate 100% ofthe profits as well.  So, it looks like a great opportunity,  We have put the idea of a car wash on the back burner and hope that Cape Ann will make us the money we need instead!  We are putting flyers all over the school and around the community.  Nicole and I also went over to the police stations because although we know the crime in Manchester and Essex keeps them extremely busy, they are often at Cape Ann for lunch, so being able to help us out may urge them to go.  We also annoyed people with a Facebook group.  Hopefully the kids in the global issues class will at least be able to get their parenrs to go or something, because it really is a great cause.

week 2, blog 2

     We just found out that Cape Ann Pizza is going to do another restaurant night for the foundation! They are willing to donate 100% of the profits to us, and are saying that all people need to do is mention Somaly Mam; flyers are not necessary.  We have also been trying to get a car wash together, but if Cape Ann Pizza makes us enough money we won’t even have to hold it.

      At first, I thought of doing the car wash at the same place where my youth basketball team raised $1,500 in the extra Gorton’s parking lot in Gloucester.  We called to try to reserve it, but apparently Gloucester has a water shortage (classic), so they are no longer holding them there.  We also called Walgreens in Danvers because that seems like a good parking lot for something like that, but they said no in a way that makes me assume that they support sex slavery.  I’m kidding, but kind of not—they were so rude! We put in calls for the parking lot in the North Beverly Plaza (Panera, CVS, Chipotle, Paper Store), as well as the Liberty Tree Mall so hopefully somebody will pull through and let us hold a fundraiser.  Our thinking is that these places would just let us use the space free of cost, and all we would need were some volunteers that look good in bathing suits (kidding again, we definitely would have to be fully-clothed since it’s a school event) and soap and sponges.  Cost-wise a car wash seems pretty efficient; hopefully it will work out!

week 2, blog 2

So, here is what I sent asking for yet another discount: 

  Mr. Cole, 

   Thank you so much! We would love to rent from 1-4pm on the 18th if that is still avaliable?  Also, I am not sure if there are difference rates for residents vs. non-residents but I am a resident of Gloucester! Let me know.

   Thanks again,

   Kelsi Field

I am trying to be semi-professional, but also look cheery, happy, and nice since I’m basically trying to get free stuff from him.  He eventually responded and said that there is not much of a difference in price for residents, but that we would be charged $300 for the venue for the three hours. Yipee! I saved us thirty bucks.  Anyways, we’re starting to get ready for this event.  During the year we were supposed to have a community presentation that included a silent auction, but the silent auction group couldn’t get their act together so we only got a few items.  Since the auction never went off, in the lobby area of the skating rink we are going to put the few items we have on tables for a mini-silent auction.  We also are going to hold a bake sale at the venue.  At the teacher talent show the bake sale made us a lot of money. Hopefully kids will skate so much that they get super hungry so the bake sale will be successful.  Running this event with all of these counterparts means that we are going to need some more volunteers; it should be interesting trying to get seniors to come back to help out if they already have their final grade in Global Issues Class, but I’m going to try my best!

week 2, blog 1

We decided to go with a skate night for our fundraiser, with hopes to also do a car wash.  To make sure this idea would work we needed to work out the logistics of price, etc. To do so, I sent this e-mail:

To whom it may concern: 
   Hello, my name is Kelsi Field and I am a student at Manchester-Essex Regional High School. I am a part of the Global Issues class, and as a part of the class our initiative is to raise $15K for the Somaly Mam Foundation (somaly.org), which fights against human trafficking.  We are well on our way to reaching a goal, but need one more fundraiser to reach it.  We were wondering what the rates would be to rent the entire rink for 2-3 hours (maybe on a Saturday afternoon), preferrably the weekend of May 10th.  Someone has informed me that the ice does not stay for the entire spring/summer, so please let me know what dates would be avaliable. 
  Thank you for your time,
   Kelsi Field

We got a good response back and went ahead with the idea.  They told us they could cut us a discout for Sunday, March 18^th from 1-4.  The rate would be $110/hr, which is apparently half of the non-resident usage.  But, I am a resident of Gloucester! This is probably the one time at MERHS that I have been able to use that as an advantage. So, I plan on e-mailing them back again and letting them know.  I kind of feel like a jerk for talking them down after they cut us a deal but hey, it’s for sex slaves after all.

week 1, blog 3

So, after talking to Mr. Wallimann, Nicole and I were given dates for when we could have our events.  We tried talking to people to get Fly Amero’s phone number, which is not available online, and it did not go well.  By the time he got around to checking his e-mail, he had already booked another concert on our desired date.  Since Mr. Wallimann is very inflexible with his schedule, it was back to the drawing board for ideas.

Mr. Wallimann then made us come up with a list of 5 other ideas that could be useful.  He basically shot down every idea we had.  Based on the Manchester Summer Playground carnival, I thought it would be fun to have a field day/carnival type thing afterschool.  Kids could use their athletic ability to dunk teacher in a dunk tank and everything.  Ultimately, it seemed that that could be too much of a cost and too hard to plan in the amount of time we have for SCORE.  Regarding cost, every “carnival-like” amusement costs about $150 to rent, so it would have been pretty expensive; we aren’t looking to spend money, we are looking to make it.  Another idea we had was to hold a pancake breakfast or an ice cream social.  Ultimately we decided against these because schools often hold ice cream socials for free so it would be hard to get families to pay for it as well as get the ice cream at a discounted cost.  We weren’t into the idea of a pancake breakfast in the end because we forgot about the Red, White, and Blue breakfast every 4^th of July in Manchester, and we wouldn’t want to upset the people that run that; plus, how many pancakes can the people of Manchester and Essex really consume?

Kelsi F- week 1, blog 2

So we have been going through our ideas and trying to come up with the most effective way to make money. Unfortunately, the administration would not let us have a cash bar at an event if Nicole and I were there working, and let’s be real, Manchester’s finest are not going to attend unless they can pop some bottles of vino.  I personally think that this was a stupid decision on the administration’s part because I am 18 and legally card and sell alcohol to Crosby’s customers.  Also, I recently got another job (because college is so damn expensive) in a liquor store.  So basically, it’s bogus that I can’t  use my skills to make more money for three year olds being raped and sold (I probably could’ve gotten them to agree if I said it like that originally, huh).  Also, Chebacco Market was going to come in and have their own cash bar; it was just to make the event more appealing, and nobody from the school would even be working it. Nicole and I planned on being the only students there; we liked this idea because we could also have a mini-presentation educating about human trafficking a bit and our actual efforts to stop it.  Whatever though, I guess it’s back to the drawing board. 

Apparently Ms. Hunt is an expert fundraiser, so we have been hounding her for ideas that can get us to our goal.  She thinks that if we rented out the chapel as planned and got Fly Amero (a local artist who is apparently famous in Cape Ann who I’ve never heard of) to perform, that we could still get a considerable amount of people because he has a big following. So, in the next few days we will be contacting him to figure out his availability.

Kelsi F-week 1, blog 1

     My first day of SCORE was very interesting and overwhelming.  First off, I have 3 classes I still have to attend, which is obviously a huge pain.  Making it even more annoying is that fact that my parents refuse to buy me a car (I'm just a Gloucester girl, not your typical MERHS car owner).  So, even when I don't have classes in the middle of my day, I'm stuck at the school trying to find something to do.  This leads to evil stares from teachers wondering why I'm in the building, and confused looks from underclassmen.  Hate to break it to the little ones, but I'm here to stay--at least for the next six weeks that is.
      For SCORE, I unfortunately have Mr. Walliman as my boss; I'm sure you all feel badly for me.  Just kidding, on a serious note though, I am working with Nicole Brosch under Wallimann's supervision to save sex slaves.  That's a pretty important task if I do say so myself, and we're determined to reach the $15,000 mark. 
     So, on the first day we brainstormed ways to meet this goal and compiled a to-do list.  One of the things we have to do is make a website.  I am not excited about this.  I am not a technological person, therefore I have visions of many struggles lying ahead.  But, we'll figure it out.  I was able to buy a copy of Wordpress for Dummies for a whopping $.02 on Amazon, so hopefully that will come in handy in the future.  For now though, we're just drawing up sketches of what the website may look like.  Soon enough we'll be hardcore constructing the site and making thousands for sex slaves. Can't wait!

Kelsi's Outline- Somaly Mam

Kelsi Field

SCORE Outline

Bilsbury

Internship with Somaly Mam

Research Question: What makes an effective charity?

Thesis: Effective charities make a conscious effort to minimize the amount of paid workers while encouraging volunteering.  The key to effective charities is getting mass amounts of people involved on a volunteer-only basis, limiting those who are on a paid board of directors.  These charities must be able to engage large groups in fundraising and promotion, while still limiting the amount of money being spent on things not directly helping the cause.

*Organization- This outline is organized based on the charitable organizations I plan to use throughout the paper. The charities will be compared and contrasted based on effectiveness, but I will mention what each individual charitable organization does and the hierarchy involved inside each one.  The following organizations will be mentioned:

Large:

American Red Cross

Unicef

Medium:

Somaly Mam Foundation*

Small/Local:

Action, Inc.

HAWC

Throughout research using charity search engines, I will come across charities that work very effectively, and others that are extremely ineffective, some of which I have never heard of.  These charities may also be mentioned in my paper if they seem to be more beneficial to proving my thesis statement.

v  Public Relations and Advertising

v  Number of People Donating

v  Number of People on Staff

o   Number of people on Board of Directors

v  Wages of workers, what percentage is used to pay workers

v  How much money goes directly to the cause

o   Is this advertised correctly to those who donate?

v  Trends in Donation

o   Age groups who donate

o   Ethnicities that donate

o   Those who are targeted

§  Ex.) Oftentimes large organizations hold benefits run by celebrities targeting the elite and super-wealthy donators to write checks, whereas college campuses often are targeted to receive workers (disaster relief, mission trips) on a volunteer-basis to work for charities.

o   Does it take bad things happening to peak donation to charities? Do organizations thrive when bad things happen?

§  Ex.) Red Cross and Natural Disasters

§  Ex.) anti-gun/NRA type organizations after Sandy Hook

The following charities will be the main proponents of this paper:

·        American National Red Cross

o   Mission Statement- “The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of others.”

o   Total Revenue- $3,452,960,387

·        UNICEF

o   Mission Statement-“ The United States Fund for UNICEF was founded in 1947 to support the work of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) by raising funds for its programs and increasing awareness of the challenges facing the world's children. The oldest of 37 national committees for UNICEF worldwide, we are part of a global effort to save, protect and improve children's lives. Every moment of every day, UNICEF is on the ground providing lifesaving help for children in need. We provide families with clean water and sanitation, we vaccinate against childhood illness, and we help protect children against malaria. We provide nourishment to fight malnutrition, and we care for children affected by AIDS. We protect children from abuse, and we give them an education. We are here to make sure that all children lead a healthy, humane, and dignified life.”

o   Total Revenue- $455,992,769

·        Somaly Mam Foundation

o   “To give victims and survivors a voice in their lives, liberate victims, end slavery, and empower survivors as they create and sustain lives of dignity”

o   Total Revenue-$3,570,520

o   Will be working directly with this foundation, will use points of contact as primary sources

o   Focus- human trafficking

·        Action, Inc.

o   Mission Statement-“Action, Inc. is a Community Action Program that works to promote economic security, not dependency. Action helps the low-income and working poor on Cape Ann and beyond in a number of unique ways.”

o   Total Revenue- $26,311,495

o   Focus- poverty on Cape Ann

§  Possible use of Beverly Bootstraps as well

·        HAWC, Healing Abuse Working for Change

o   Mission Statement- “The purpose of HAWC is to create social change by taking action against personal and societal patterns of violence and oppression. HAWC provides services and support to victims of domestic violence residing in 23 cities and towns on Massachusetts' North Shore in order that they may make informed, independent decisions about their futures.”

·        

o   Total Revenue-$2,073,216

Charity Websites

·        http://actioninc.org/aboutaction.htm

·        http://somaly.org/

·        http://www.unicefusa.org/?gclid=CPfclLXBhLYCFYqf4AodZkQA0g

·        http://www.redcross.org/

·        http://www.hawcdv.org/mission-statement-31.html

·        Personal Reviews of Charity’s Tacticsà How these tactics could be improved

o   How others feel they contributed and how often they contribute

o   What others thought they were contributing/ what actually happened to the money

o   Volunteer experiences

o   How people hear about charitable organizations & are prompted to donate

o   Personal complains or praise for a charity

§  Ex.) “My wife gave blood a few times. Now they call multiple times per day. They won't stop. I asked them to stop. They said my wife has to ask them to stop. For their incessant robo-calling and their insolent attitude they have earned my undying ire,” (greatnonprofits.org).

·        ^Will attempt to use first person accounts like the one above as a primary source similar to the one above, will attempt to contact those who online as well

·        Fundraising and Public Relations techniques

o   International vs. National vs. Local

o   Advertised on TV

o   Advertised locally, catering towards a certain amount of views

o   978-282-1000, contact directly with Action, Inc. to discuss fundraising/mission/where the money goes

New Labels

New Labels