Spence School Bookmark and Bake Sale

In the winter and spring of 2012, the Spence School’s International Issues Club (IIC) committed itself to supporting the library of a newly built school in Las Brisas, Costa Rica, in order to prevent students from needing to walk one hour to the nearest school to read books. The IIC is a middle school club comprised of approximately eighteen intelligent and passionate 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade girls. The middle school girls were already seasoned fundraisers having led several fundraisers to build a school in Haiti by the time I began working with them.

The IIC girls began brainstorming fundraising ideas after thoroughly researching the project and determined that the fundraiser should reflect how the funds would be used, thus the girls began planning a bookmark sale. They decided that the bookmark sale would be significantly more profitable if they were made and designed by our very own lower school Spence girls, and so the lower school girls in the arts program designed more than 100 laminated bookmarks for the sale. The more entrepreneurial members of the IIC concluded that though the bookmarks would be popular, they would not reach the fundraising goal. Due to their prior experience, the girls determined that a bake sale would cover the additional funds (and even more!). The fundraiser occurred in May 2012 and raised $428.28. Leading up the sale, the club members designed wonderful posters and crafted informative announcements to notify the school community of the project and its importance. On the morning of the sale, every club member arrived promptly at 7:15 with bags of home made goods to sell alongside the bookmarks. The middle school girls set the prices, ran the sale and managed the cash box all on their own. It was wonderful to watch the girls grow passionate about the project and take initiative!

Olivia


Spence School ‘12