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Relay For Life Charity Fundraiser

by Paige

To raise money for the Relay For Life Foundation, my chapter of Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity hosted a large-scale Relay For Life event paired with a buffet, raffle, and performance. Traditionally Relay for Life is done with a large group of people walking for a few hours around an area and getting pledges to raise money. We decided to take a spin on it and instead of a walk it would be a dance marathon. This event was done in a few parts and involved a lot of volunteer effort.

Planning: First we came up with some committees. We needed a committee in charge of communicating with the Relay For Life national organization, a raffle committee, a food and decoration committee, an advertising committee, and an entertainment committee.

Relay For Life Committee: This group was in charge of registering our event with the organization, finding out how to make donations, and getting t-shirt, bracelets, etc. from the organization.

Raffle Committee: This committee got donations for raffle prizes from local businesses and brought those businesses valid Relay For Life tax information. This group also made posters for the day of the event to display what businesses donated.

Food and Decor Committee: This group was in charge of getting as much food and decor donated from local businesses as possible. This group also made posters for the day of the event to display what businesses donated.

Advertising Committee: This group used the resources of our school to generate excitement and ensure that we had participation for the day of the event. They set up an information table in a high-traffic area of campus and handed out flyers advertising that tickets to the event are $5 at the door and $3 beforehand. This helped to get some people to pay in advance to ensure that some money would come in regardless of the success of the event. This team was very successful through making posters to hang around campus, putting advertisements in our college newspaper and campus newsletter as well as on the display screen in the student union. This was a crucial part of the success of the fundraiser.


Entertainment Committee: Hired the entertainment at no cost and set up a performance schedule with the assistance of the Relay For Life Committee. They also hired a DJ to play music during the

The event ended up going off without a hitch. We began by allowing people to mingled in the event space (the school gym which we reserved in advance). We allowed people to take their seats before announcing that the buffet was open, allowing two tables at a time to go up. Next, we had a speaker from Relay For Life give a short opening speech and introduce a local cancer survivor. The cancer survivor also gave a short speech and then announced the beginning of the dance marathon. During strategically placed breaks, we drew winners for the raffle and did the performances. For our event we had a local stand-up comedian and the school's dance team.

This idea was chosen because we wanted to come up with an event that would get lots of different people involved for lots of different reasons. Some people were there because they wanted to dance, some to eat, some to win prizes, some for the cause, and some just for something to do. This allowed us to get a very high number of participants at a school where participation is usually low.

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