Downey High School’s Key Club has raised over $1,000 for UNICEF, an organization that donates money to third world countries, by doing different fundraisers during the months of October and November
The club is amongst those groups that helped eliminate tetanus in some third world countries. Key Club used a variety of techniques that proved to be successful. Every member participated in at least one of these fundraising techniques.
“I saw that the club was really devoted to raising this money because they gave us a bunch of stuff to do for the cause,” Monica Rojas, 10, said.
In addition to buttons being distributed to each member to sell for a dollar, they also carried donation boxes around for any amount of money that people had to be donated. The members also decorated their donation boxes to create a more festive spirit. The buttons read, “Trick or treat for UNICEF,” which was the name of the fundraiser. They did this, as well as a class competition.
“I participated in the class competition that the club was having,” Cynthia Tran, 11, said. “I basically helped out during my lunch with the junior’s photo booth. I also walked around in a clown wig with Anne [another Key Club member] and tried to convince strangers to support the cause.”
The competition within the club was used to have the members raise money in a more interesting way. With the satisfaction of helping UNICEF, the freshmen had a yard sale, sophomores sold popsicles, juniors had a photo booth, and seniors had a bake sale. Tran, along with other Key Club juniors, brought in props for customers at the photo booth to use. This eventually paid off when the juniors won the competition after raising over a hundred dollars.
“There was a lot of time invested into raising the money, but I feel like most of it was done by the members,” Key Club president Amy Lee, 12, said. “They worked very hard, as did the [Key Club] board.”
Lee was observant over her members during the two months and she really saw who was doing what. She then said that although the work was tiring for the members, board members in particular, they kept on going because they knew that it would be worth it in the end.
Since the club is amongst those who fundraised over a thousand dollars for UNICEF, Key Club is very proud of their devotion to the cause. The money raised is the result of the kindness of those who were nothing but willing to help.
