Post 6

The Outreach project is now completely over and it is now time to reflect on what we have done. To say right away I think our Outreach was an overall success, but it was not without its flaws. We still don’t have an exact number on how much money we raised but a good estimate would be around $500, hopefully even exceeding this number. From the beginning of the Outreach we had the goals of spreading awareness and raising money. I think that we were much more successful in raising money for Erin’s Dream rather than spreading awareness about it. This is because of a few reasons. First off, Erin’s Dream was a difficult organization to fully understand and describe to someone. It saddens me that I actually think that a couple people in my class don’t even fully understand what Erin’s Dream is all about. The other problem that we faced was that it’s very hard to reach people since no one wanted to listen and get engaged. This is more directed towards the posters, Twitter, Facebook and even the WTV commercial. When people saw these forms of advertisements I highly doubt that it motivated them to get involved. The best way I thought about making other people really understand what Erin’s Dream is about was by engaging in a conversation with them about it, yet this has draw backs too. I understand it’s not reasonable to talk to everyone about Erin’s Dream, but I thought of it as the best way that I made others understand what the foundation was all about. When my class was still throwing ideas around about which organization to spread awareness about I supported the Water Project because it seemed easier to do a project about. Though in the end Erin’s Dream felt a lot more rewarding since it affected people in the community, so I am happy that we stuck with Erin’s Dream. This leads me on my reflection of my personal Outreach. In total because of the Outreach project I made a commercial for Erin’s Dream, wrote a personal letter in hope for getting support, and I sold two T-shirts. For me I found the personal letter I wrote much more rewarding personally, but so far I still haven’t gotten a response back which disappoints me. The next most important thing I did was sell the two T-shirts. You may me think that the commercial would raise more awareness then selling a couple shirts, but I honestly don’t think so. When the commercial started playing on WTV I looked around and no one seemed to pay any attention. While when I sold T-shirts I would engage on a conversation about what Erin’s Dream was and even if the persona didn’t end up buying a T-shirt they would understand what Erin’s Dream is. One of the t-shirts I sold was to Mr. Walsh, my math teacher, and he gave me $15 since he didn’t have the single dollar bills to pay for the $12 and he decided to let me keep the extra $3 since it was easier for him and that the money was going for a good cause. I realized that $15 is a much better price and if I could change things that would be on the top of my list. Something else I thought about was that T-shirts might not have been the best way to make money. I was told we only make $2 for each shirt and for the cost spent that isn’t a lot of profit. I saw other groups sold candy and bracelets for a dollar and it raised a dollar for every 50 cents paid, which was much more profitable than our T-shirts. So in conclusion even though I have noticed many flaws with the class Outreach project I think it was an overall success and that I will remember it for years to come. 

Post five

            Five weeks have pasted and we are going onto our fifth and finale week of the outreach project. Practically everything has been going according to plan. John, Jalen, and I finished the commercial last Wednesday. The commercial was first aired on WTV on the following Thursday and is still being run. I personally think the commercial was well made but another thing I’m thinking about is that it’s hard to tell how much of an impact it made. By the time the commercial was done we soon got our T-shirts. Each person from the class is buying a T-shirt and we are all wearing them Wednesday. According to the Google Doc we have raised 139.65$, but I am quite certain we rose much more. I think that the money raised from the T-shirts hasn't been added in yet, which I expect to be at least 200$. Mrs. Johnston also held a fundraiser and raised somewhere around 150$. If everything goes well we might actually raise close to 500$. Another thing I found interesting was that there was a story written by NBC Philadelphia about Mrs. Curtis and Erin’s dream. It mainly talked about Mrs. Curtis and how she is running in the Pepsi Refresh Everything Project. Honestly I was surprised when I found out a recent news article was written about her and Erin’s Dream. Thought I don’t know if the Outreach project had an effect on the article, I am happy that Erin’s Dream is getting some awareness. This also reminds me of the letter I sent to the President of Alpha Beta Kappa. I have no received any reply yet and I know that my grade won’t really be affected if she replies or not, I still hope that I get a reply soon.With only one week left of the Outreach I am anxious of what will happen in the coming days.eddddddddddd

post four

Post Four

            The Outreach has now been four weeks long, with one week remaining. Over the past week nothing much has really happened. We have now raised 127$, an extra 37$ from last week; but as far as I am aware of nothing else really happened. For the marketing group the commercial still isn’t even done yet. Since last Wednesday I found out that the commercial has to be 30 seconds of less and what I had at the time was 58 seconds. This meant I had to cut down the time. I was able to do that but music still needs to be added to the commercial and then it would be done. It’s just that I wasn’t able to work on it last week since I was always busy after school and that no one else is really spending much time on it. Since we will have time to work on it tomorrow I plan that we will be able to upload the music and finish the commercial, then having it play on the morning announcements the next day. This is what I plan, yet I don’t know if something will go wrong. I foresee problems with adding music since last time I tried to add it I wasn’t successful, but that was when I was limited in time and I’m sure that we will be able to complete it. Another thing I am worried about is the shirts. With only one week left in the Outreach even if the shirts arrive tomorrow, I doubt we will be able to sell them all within a week. I’m sure we will be able to still sell them after next week is over if we have a surplus left over by the end of next week. The other possible problem might be about if we can even sell all the Erin’s Dream tee-shirts. If we aren’t able to sell all the tee-shirts then we will end up losing money and we may have to end up covering those expenses with the money we raised. Yet I hardly doubt that we would take away the money we raised to pay for expenses but it’s just a possibility to keep in mind. 

Post three

                It has been three weeks since the start of the outreach project. With the outreach ending in a two weeks and things are picking up speed. What’s going on with the marketing group is that we are still working on the commercial. We are indeed behind schedule and this is the biggest problem facing my group. Another thing is that our marketing group has split up into smaller groups so only a couple of people are working on the commercial. It seems like since we started making the commercial things have been going against us. Jalen and I would have finished it from the first day if the computer didn’t crash half-way into it. We also don’t have many chances to work on it since we don’t have any study halls in common so we have to work after school, but we can only work during on Tuesdays and Thursdays since on the other day the library closes early. The commercial is now almost done so I need to stop worrying about what happened and focus on what needs to be done. All we need to add is the music, yet we run into another problem. I don’t exactly know how to add the sad music we are looking for without using YouTube, but if I can get on YouTube I will be fine. I plan to work on it tomorrow in study hall and I hope it will be on announcements by Friday. As part of the marketing group I am aware with what’s going on with my group but because of bad communication I don’t really know how other groups are doing. What I do know so far is that so far we raised 90$ for Erin’s Dream, which I think is a good amount and that it’s better than nothing, yet it’s not great. We will raise more money once t-shirts become available; I was actually very impressed when I heard about the idea of selling t-shirts. Another thing I noticed was one of my friends who is doing the same project is selling. With the box being 15$, selling the candy for 1$ apiece, box having 30 pieces, he makes a 50% percent profit. I think our class should try it out and see how it goes. I don’t think it will be as effective now because I’m sure other classes are trying it but I don’t think I can hurt. 

Post 2 

It has been one week since my last post and so far the outreach project is progressing nicely. As part of the marketing group my job is to think and create ways of sending a message about our Outreach project that will end up reaching as many people as possible. The marketing group has split into two smaller sub-groups to accomplish our two main ideas; creating posters and making a commercial. Evan and Neal are in charge of making the posters while John, Jalen, and I are in charge of making the commercial. The commercial is to embody what our entire Outreach project is all about. So far we have worked on the script, including me personally. The script isn’t set in stone rather it’s more like an outline for most of stuff we will be saying, and if we think of something good we will add it. The plan is to have the commercial to be done by Friday, so that it will start to be playing on the announcements. So far as I reflect on how the Outreach is going, I think it is going good but I realized something that isn’t too good for us. We are not the only class trying to raise awareness and raise money for a cause. This means people will have more choices to who wish to spend or donate their money to. What I think makes it worse is that what we are bringing awareness isn’t as easy to describe as other causes are. If people don’t really understand what we are all about this will lead to less money and awareness being raised. This is why I think the commercial I am working on is so important. If done correctly, watching our commercial will incite the viewers to donate or talk about our cause. For next week I plan on having the commercial completely done and for it to be playing on the announcements as soon as possible. Monday would seem like the earliest time that it would air, but no later than Wednesday. This may still only be the beginning but I am looking forward to what will be happening in the future.  

Post one

Post one

Okay so the first week has gone by and so far we have a good start. In order to increase efficiency we have split into three different groups; the groups being fundraising, marketing, and research. I belong to the marketing group and our main goal to spread that our organization exists to as many people as possible using whatever methods we can think of. I am working with Jalen, John, Dan, Evan, Neal, and people from other groups such as Casey.  Personally I have worked on the action plan for the group as well as thought of some of the ideas that we will be using, such as the video. I plan on making some sort of video to explain what it is we are trying to do and will help motivate people to donate or just spread the word. I have thought about getting the Interact Club involved somehow because if we could then it could reach more motivated people and will make them more inclined to donate. If we could make some sort of deal with the Interact Club in which the people who donated some sort of club credit then it will lead to a much higher amount of donations. The problem with that is that I would have to talk to Mr. Edder who runs the club and it would be hard to find a credit reward system that we would all agree on. Another problem would be getting the video on the announcement which is where the most people will be affected by it. This may be a slight problem but it is not too hard to overcome. I know a few of us have friends in WTV and I am sure it won’t be too hard to allow the video to be played on the announcements. Another problem my group is running into is the amount of people. We do not have enough people for our group, not a big problem because people from other groups can join. Evan already joined our group and we are receiving help from other groups. Another thing I have been thinking about is how people seem to be "locked" into their groups. I think that in order to increase efficiency the groups need to be more open and have people who work in multiple groups in order to allow ideas and information to flow faster. So far I think the outreach is going quite well; we still have a far way to go but we have taken good first steps and I truly believe that by the time this ends we will have really helped some people.