K4K @ WIS Christmas Market

PREPARATION

A lot of planning was put into this; as it was our first major activity as the WIS Kisd4Kids Club for Term 1, apart from Buddy Reading. It was initially quite difficult to organise members to sign up as naturally there was a build-up of exams and tests towards the end of term; but we still managed to get some to particpate and sign up. It was especially hard to encourage sign ups for the Wednesday after-school session as many did not want to stay after normal school hours - however I managed to convince my brother (who had signed up for K4K) to do so, and this transformed into a technique to get his friends to help out during that hour as well!

It was also very encouraging to have some support from our CAS supervisor, Mr Walker! His support through the entire process made us all motivated to strive to do our best for Kids4Kids at the Christmas Market.

We sorted the required roles into 3 parts - stall helpers, bakers, and old books. Here is what the table looked like:

Unfortunately, the Tuesday lunch shift was cancelled and a lot of members were displaced; nevertheless it was heart-warming to see them show up at the Wednesday lunch shift and offer their help!

In order to promote the event, I designed a poster using an online software "Canva" and posted them around school. This was the first time I made a poster for a CAS activity and I was delighted to have learned new skills from online poster designing, as well as taking heed of peers' feedback to improve the colour choice and layout. The design was as below:

CHRISTMAS MARKET:

We had some merchandise provided by the Kids4Kids organisation, which included greeting cards ($20 per pack), placemats (originally $100 but dropped to $50) and CDs ($20 each); all designed by kids themselves. As we anticipated that students were unlikely to purchase these products, we decided to do a small bake sale ($5-$10) as well as selling some candy canes ($5 each) and M&M's in glass jars ($20) - this proved to be a great sale as most cakes and all of the latter two were sold out in less than an hour. We were able to acquire extra donations from some teachers and devised effective marketing strategies to sell the coloured greeting cards.

In the after-school session, not as many people were at the Christmas Market and some expressed interest in the placemats but were discouraged by the price - thus we changed our marketing strategy and promoted combination bundles for a seemingly more advantageous price. By the end of the 3:30-4:30 shift, more than half our leftover merchandise (and all the cakes) had been sold, thanks to the help of our passionate student volunteers.

Up until the Christmas Concert at 6:30, as most volunteers left, I had to manage the stall by myself. It wasn't easy considering the low number of visitors walking around the stalls, though I managed to sell a few more greeting card packs, especially to parents or friends that I ran into during the two hours.

Overall, we managed to raise a grand total of $1526.60 and the Kids4Kids person-in-charge was quite impressed! It was thanks to the hard work of everyone; Kids4Kids student volunteers, Mr Walker, and CAS activity leaders, that we were able to fundraise for this cause.

Looking forward to another great term!

CAS L.O. addressed:

[16 . 12 . 15]

#Kids4Kids