Fundraising: More Prom, Less Prama

Prom- some may say it is the best night of high school. Others might say that prom weekend is the recess to look forward to senior year. Nevertheless, this spectacle of a night wouldn’t be possible without extensive fundraising from the beginning. How much do students get involved in class fundraising until they’re cramming bake sales their last year of the great adventure called high school? Or do freshman actively participate in fundraising events to ensure that their prom will be a great one? MDO got the chance to speak with president Vivian Lee of the junior class and Julia Prout, an executive of the senior prom committee.

MDO: When would you say your graduating class began doing major fundraisers?

Vivian: For the past 2-3 years, our class has had many fundraisers, and although they have all contributed to our class funds, only until Junior year did we really start making the big bucks. The first two years of high school, our class made roughly $11,000. Since the beginning of this school year to now, November, we have made over twice that amount! In just three months! During junior year, the class gets passed down from the past juniors the hut sales at football games and the annual tricky tray and 50/50 raffle. These were our two biggest fundraisers this year, and as you can tell, we were successful in both. Despite these two great fundraisers, they wouldn’t have been great if we didn’t have the amazing volunteers that we did. We all worked extremely hard to make the events the best we could, and shown in the outcome, we have done just that, and more.  I would definitely say that this year so far, has been a successful year, and I hope that we can continue to carry that out for the rest of our high school experience.

MDO: Was your fundraising in full swing freshman year or did it take your class council a while to pull together to come up with more than the average bake sale?

Vivian: Coming from Harding and not knowing anything about class council, I had not joined class council until halfway through sophomore year. Therefore, I was not part of the freshman year fundraising, but from what I heard, fundraising during freshman year was definitely not at full swing. The occasional bake sale here and there were some of the main fundraisers that we profited off. In the beginning of our high school career, everyone was still trying to grasp the concept and keep up with the rigorous pace of high school, that class fundraising wasn’t the first task on our lists. At the time, it took the class council a while to come up with fun and creative fundraisers but slowly but surely, the ideas started to roll in in no time!

MDO: What kind of innovative fundraisers has your class been having to raise money for your prom?

Vivian: As of last year, our class has gotten creative with coming up with our fundraisers. Last Christmas, we did a Christmas gram fundraiser, it was a hit! It was fun to see the reactions of the receivers when they received grams from a secret admirer or friend! It was also fun to go around delivering the grams class to class, and we plan on continuing this fundraiser again this year! I believe that when we do fundraisers, there shouldn’t only be one sole purpose to just raise money. No. I believe that the fundraisers that we do should be profitable for our class, but also should be fun events that gets everyone involved in and engaged! This past Bottle Hill Day we had a dunk tank despite how cold it was that day! We gathered a bunch of volunteers to be dunked, and ended up raising $800 from the event! Not only did we make a huge profit, everyone helping out had lots of fun! It was awesome! This year, we have even more awesome fundraisers coming up, so keep your eyes open for cool Class of 2018 fundraisers! Roughly we have raised about $36,000.

It is safe to say that the 2018 prom will be a memorable prom taking all of hard work, determination, and preparation made into consideration. According to Vivian, most of the impactful fundraising was started during junior year as more people wanted to get involved. Hopefully this year’s prom will be just as unforgettable. MDO contacted Julia Prout, a member of the senior prom committee, and asked about the fundraising efforts made by this year’s graduating class of 2017.

“Upon entering high school, our class council seemed to be in full swing. Our elected officials, Ms. Wahle, and Ms. Zemaneck, are both really motivated and dedicated to fundraising and doing the best for our class. Ms. Wahle seemed to go into class council freshman year with a lot of creative ideas that benefitted our class. I think we tried to start large fundraisers since the beginning of high school, but a lot of the student body did not start to really participate in fundraisers until almost the end sophomore year or junior year. Our class has done so many different types of fundraisers such as discount cards, scavenger hunts, and apparel sales, as well as the tricky tray, working the hut, and bake sales.” – member of the senior prom committee, Julia Prout. In agreement with Vivian, Julia claims that the class of 2017’s major attempts for fundraising began later in high school.

Hopefully the freshman class will take notes so they can get a headstart on their 2020 prom!