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The Race to Buy Musical Equipment

by Kristine
(Garland, Texas, USA)

In 10th grade we had one of the best fundraisers I have ever participated in. In the part of Dallas I lived in, we were very in to music. However, not many people had the resources to rent or buy an instrument. The schools weren't any better. They used up their resources in other parts of education, while the music groups didn't have any equipment to use. Because so many students and music teachers were so determined to help everyone have a little music in their lives, we all met and decided how we were going to do this. We chose this specific idea because it was fun and was very related to what we were fundraising for. We knew that many people loved to listen to music, so we thought this wold be a very great idea.
One shy quite student I have seen here and there raised her hand. What came out of her mouth was something I would have never expected to come from such a person. She thought up of the idea that we should have a music festival to fundraise for the music department. The teachers told up that there was not a large fund left for their department. However, we were so determined to help people pursue their music, that we were willing to take that risk.
To advertise the music festival, we did many things. We called radio stations and asked if they could come out to our music festival and if they could help advertise our cause on the radio so that there could be a big turnout. Then we called many newspapers and asked if they could possibly advertise our cause free of charge on the newspaper. We had a couple of people donate to help print our thousands of fliers for the music festival. We also asked everyone to spread the word. The more people that turns out at the festival, the better it would be for our cause of music. We asked several local musicians if they could come out and help people become what they have become.

At the music festival we had many musicians that volunteered to play that day. We bought many prizes such as ipods and laptops. People could buy a raffle ticket to win many of our great prizes. We sold very delicious food and sold many drinks. It was like a carnival, but our music festival was more loud and alive. We had game booths for the children to play. It was very exciting and successful.
At the end of the day, we made more than enough money. We made about $10,000. There were very rich donors there that gave money to our cause. Even though we didn't have great equipment at the festival, everyone still had fun. We didn't have much money, but many departments at my high school were willing to give us some money in order to make this happen. They knew how much music meant to these children. We could finally buy equipment for the school. After the fundraiser, many students could finally pursue their musical dreams.
How did we become so successful in our fundraiser? The main thing to remember is to believe in what you are doing. Even if it seems that things might not work out, you just have got to believe and work hard for it. There were many times that we thought that it all would fail, but the teachers reminded us that we should be more optimistic and hopeful, and that we did!