Fundraising...

* (Please excuse the long sentences... still getting used to this)

So, I'm getting ready to travel overseas on tour with my choir. We're going for a month and we each have to pay $4000 each and $1000 each per region (ie if there are 10 member in one town they have to work together to raise $10,000)... but as I'm the only choir member in my region it's just an extra $1000 and it's all me- $5000!
So I did a movie night which pretty much bombed. It could have been good but I started advertising it too late and there were a bunch of people who (they said) would have come if it weren't for...*insert reason here*... Miraculously managed to make a wee bit on that one (thankfully, when it looked like I was going to be lucky to break even!)

Great plan #2 was my Silent Art Auction. I have a tradition with a couple of girlfriends of meeting for coffee on Friday night after work, to talk and unwind after the week (I really recommend it, by the way- a problem shared is less of a problem!) So I approached our regular Friday after-work coffee hang out, "La Commune" about doing it there over a period of a month or so, highlighting how it would beneficial for the cafe with the idea of the auction being that you would go back and check your auction, in an attempt to win the art. The manager/owner dude was totally sweet about it and so we booked May into our diaries. I approached a whole bunch of artist friends (one of the reason I thought of the art auction was all the arty peeps I am lucky to call friends) and a few generous darlings gave me some work for me to auction. I also found/created a eclectic selection of my own work to go in there. So "THUNDER: the cool silent auction" has been up since the 1st of May... it was really slow at the beginning and I was down in the dumps- doubting my "stupid idea" and generally trying to avoid thinking about it, but it seems to have picked up and I once again have a bit of hope in the thing. I like that it's got me doing art again too... what's an artist without a deadline- honestly, I don't know many arty folk who just decide they'll get our their desired medium and create a masterpiece. I wonder why that is!?! Anyway it's been good for that. So THUNDER's due to come down at the end of the month and I talked with Cam and we is havin' a party to see it off. It's all happening on Saturday night, June 2nd- Queen's b'day weekend Saturday night. At the mo I'm thinking the plan will be to have all the auctions finishing that night- maybe 1opm... but maybe I'll stagger the ending of each auction to get the blood pumping and crowd brawling and all that!

My other big fundraising idea (or Plan #3) was screenprinting and selling cool designer fashions . I designed a... design (!) for tops- hoodies, sleeveless hoods and tees (+ I've done a couple of polos and thermal tees) I call the range "Choral Thug". It has the word SING across the top in a bit of an arch (like those typical USA university jerseys) as well as "all my LIFE" (a play in the "Est 1979" kinda thing you see everywhere), a big S/A/T/B (for the 4 sections of the choir- Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass - buyers get to choose the letter to suit) and "Aotearoa Waiata" at the bottom (translation: New Zealand Songs". Yuh so that one has been going quite well... local folk have been emailing orders through after seeing the article in the local paper so that's been good. I'm hoping to go and visit a couple of the local choirs to rally support (in the way of hoodie sales)... we'll see how that goes.

Overall, though, I have come to agree with my wise husband... it is SOOOO much more efficient to just work at you job and pay the dosh yourself!