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.