Haiti Action Plan

3/14/10-Morning

The students and I were overwhelmed with charitable efforts. We carefully considered the benefits of each type of charity and decided that a shelter box would be the best fit for us because we can track a shelter box, which made us feel more connected to it. Additionally, the Rotary uses all of the money to pay directly for the shelter boxes. Finally, shelter boxes have a long record of success throughout the world.

3/14/10-Afternoon

After selected a shelter box as our goal, we decided that we would brainstorm a list of community businesses. We thought that many organizations, like ourselves, wanted to help but felt a little overwhelmed by all of the charitable opportunities. We also recognized that the need would remain high over time but the interest would fade as Haiti dropped from the news cycle. After considering each of these factors, we thought that we would ask local businesses to share a shelter box donation because we thought no one local business would be able to afford the $1000 price tag. Therefore, we set a target of 20 businesses with a suggestion donation of $100. In this way, fully half of the businesses would decline our request and we could still fund a shelter box.

We also felt that our project should celebrate the charity of the local businesses so we debate various ways we could support them. We decided that a spaghetti dinner would be a great way to say thank-you and to help raise some additional funds if dinner attendees made a suggested donation of $5 per person. It was important to everyone that the donation be a suggestion because we wanted everyone to attend, regardless of financial constraints.

We also thought that we could increase our chances of success if the business owners could get a receipt for their donation that they could use on their taxes. We contacted the local rotary and set-up a meeting for the following week when students would present a letter of intent and answer any questions the rotary might want to ask. Trish Bessette agreed to drive and chaperone the students for their visit.

The students also made a list of the 20 local businesses that we would contact and got contacts for each business. Another group of students worked on a letter that would explain our project and how the local businesses could help.

A third group of students worked on entertainment for the show. We contacted several local bands and considered a DJ but ultimately decided to invite the Young Play Writes to present their work at the spaghetti dinner.

We met with Chef Robert Merrihew, who agreed to cook for our spaghetti dinner. We also selected a date, 6/11, and got permission from the office to schedule this event.

Details in hand, a group of students made a flyer to advertise the spaghetti dinner.


3/19/10

Students met with Colchester Rotary, which agreed to partner with us on this project.