Every time you turn around, it seems like someone is pushing an Eileen’s cookie dough order form in your face. Almost every club, class, or organization at Hastings High is doing the same fundraiser, and it doesn’t seem right.
“I think that everyone doing the Eileen’s sales is a good idea, but not a creative way to make money. If a student has more than one organization that they are using, the fundraiser they are using would only make money for one organization. Not many people buy twice from the same person,” senior Nichole Sharp said. Sharp is raising money for her French class.
Not only is it annoying that everyone chooses to do the same fundraiser, students are also losing money, because as Sharp said, no one likes to buy from the same fundraiser more than once.
“Logically, less money will be made if everyone does the same,” Sharp said.
So what should happen in order to prevent losing money and turning away customers with cookie dough?
“They should come up with more ways to fundraise,” Sharp said.
Activities Director Gregg Holliday can help organizations develop more ideas for raising funds.
“Our policy is each group has to go through me. The reason for that is so people don’t step on each other’s toes,” Holliday said.
The trouble is, all the foreign language classes are doing the same fundraiser. Is it just easier to do this, or are they just shy about throwing new ideas into the pot?
“They [clubs] can bring any new ideas with the fundraising. One year, the debate team sold pies,” Holliday said.
New ideas are hard to come by when there are already “pre-made” ideas. And because activities cost money, there will be fundraising.
“We don’t have to [fundraise], but a lot of teams want extra things. Sometimes before or after a game, they [coaches] take the players out to eat, or they’ll buy them a T-shirt. So really, it’s whatever the group is working for,” Holliday said.
So, groups don’t necessarily have to fundraise. It’s just something to do for a little extra “dough”. Instead of conforming with everyone else, students should go to their organization leaders and tell them about any ideas they have for fundraising. The debate team sold pies one year, and the cheer squad sold pasta. Those were pretty creative, and nobody else did them, so they got more business.
Or, groups fundraising for foreign languages class so they can travel to the mystical land of Europe, can throw out some ideas about selling food that comes from the country they plan to visit.
After students pitch these ideas to their organization leader, set up an appointment with Holliday to get the idea on the map. It’s a fast and easy process.
