THE BIG GIVE.
You know those things that happen and you just can’t go another second without writing something down?
I am sitting in my house working on some paperwork for school. My cat is cozily asleep on my lap, his purring way louder than my fingers hitting the keys. I’m drinking some sort of lemon herbal tea, part decompressing, part working. Partly blinking away tears and catching my breath. Today was not just any other school day, after all…
It was the highly-anticipated results day for our school fundraiser. We entered the Columbus Foundation’s semi-annual “Big Give,” hoping to raise some money along with more than 900 other charities around Columbus. With the population of our school being nearly 50% students with mobility impairments, we have been hoping to build a wheelchair-accessible wellness path. People at my school have long-desired this new walking path that would greatly benefit our students and the community as a whole.
Eileen, an all-star PTA supermom of some of the kindest students in our school, has been scheming for years about this path. She has acquired grants, done some fundraising, dreamt with our principal about it, and set the project into motion. For this year’s Big Give, she had ideas to take to social media and get some traction for the wellness path. She was hoping we could create a buzz for the big day of giving, and she first called on the Instagram expert, Erin. She almost immediately won us a $1,500 bonus prize with an amazing picture of one of our students! Our ideas kept gravitating towards social media videos, potentially even a rap music video, and we were all-in. Thank you, Erin, for hearing out my nonstop ideas, letting me interrupt class (only a few times), and making the great pictures and videos happen. And thank you, Eileen, for jumpstarting this and coming in everyday with new ideas and awesome graphics. The ridiculous photo & music video shoots on the playground during recess were a blast. Our new “Dream Team” name couldn’t be more fitting!
Our expectations continued to rise as a buzz was definitely rippling through the hallways. I don’t think any of us were prepared for what the results would eventually be!
By week 2 of the fundraising push, we had pumped out a few informational videos and encouraged the rest of the staff to do the same. How about a school of nearly 100 employees, all varying in age and social media presence, taking to Facebook and Instagram to help make this all happen? Huge shout-out to everyone, at a school I already knew was supportive and cohesive. You all linked arms and threw yourselves into this to help as much as possible. Thank you, all-star staff.
Students from every grade got so excited to be part of the music video we made and wanted to contribute in any way they could. They let us interrupt their recess every day for weeks and jumped at opportunities to help us. It was so fun. Our school mascot is “All Stars” and these kids live up to it every single day. What a joy to be part of this school.
My brother, Drew, offered up his recording studio at his home for the rap song we made. He mixed and mastered it as well in no time. My brother in law, Erik, took all of our video clips and turned it into the awesome music video in the blink of an eye. Both were willing to help in above and beyond ways at the first mention of this project. Thank you guys so much.
So to the big result day. I had two dreams the night prior, both very vivid, about the amount of money we raised. In the first dream we had raised $747 and I was bummed. To my relief, I woke up and tossed and turned into my next dream- $5,133. That’s more like it! I was a little sad to wake up after that one, cause over $5,000 would’ve been awesome. I still went to school excited and so eager to find out. One cup of coffee has felt like 5 lately, and I know Eileen and Erin feel the exact same!
We called at 9am sharp. No answer. Someone eventually told us to send an email around noon for our results. Eileen came into my classroom at 1:30 or so, grinning and nearly jumping out of her shoes. We ran to Erin’s room and braced ourselves for the email…
$13,770.39.
Pinch me. We gasped and jumped and hugged and ran in place and jumped around some more. 153 donors. Almost $14,000. In one day. ONE DAY. We were ecstatic. We ended the day with a school-wide revealing of our total and a dance party shortly followed. It was amazing. The whole gym full of students laughed and smiled, dancing together to a Katy Perry song. I wanted to freeze time. Erin, Eileen and I quickly schemed in the hallway about one final fundraising push to raise the remaining cost. That was only a couple hours before getting this text…
“Chris, sent you a note on messenger,” just popped up on my phone. “We will donate $5k…”
Pinch me again. Our path has generously been paid for. It happened. I can’t even put words to how exciting that moment was. The whole process for that matter. I am overjoyed and proud and grateful. I keep thinking about this quote that I love, and it goes for every single one of you who gave or participated in some way…
“The most generous people I know don’t call it generosity; they call it living.”
Now, due to many sharing their lives with us, the path will be built. We can’t wait.
Thank you for giving BIG!
^ right when we found out the results!
