Summer Reading Package Received~ Gema and Crystal

Su just received these pictures of Gema and Crystal with their summer reading package. They look happy with the things that they received. Unfortunately, Su does not have the letter to go with these pictures yet, so we don't have any idea what they said about the package. She is going to share the letter as soon as she gets it!

Gema's IGP~ Ice Cream Shop

Aren't these the best pictures ever? CI Guatemala provided 17 pictures for the IGP that we provided for Gema and her family. This business is up and running now (as you can see). They are selling popsicles, ice cream cones, and chocolate covered fruit! I don't have the letter or notes from the field, but you can see the joy in everyone's faces. Check out the last one of Gema eating an ice cream cone! Anyone else in the mood for a trip to Guatemala? Maybe Mack can stop by and get some chocolate covered fruit when she visits at the end of this year.

And the winner for Day 10 is...

McKenzie Fritch (AKA Mack) and Jim Miller! They have won the gorgeous travel book about Lisbon, which is perfect because Jim traveled there last year!! I'm sure it will bring many great memories! Mack, please make sure to send Su your address, if she doesn't already have it.

I, also, wanted to mention that even though this raffle got off to a slow start, it gained $49 in donations! See why I always say you guys are the best?! Now, we are only short $91 to get this fundraiser completed!! You guys rock! Anyone hungry for ice cream? They should have their ice cream shop up and running by February... So, if you are planning a trip to Guatemala anytime after that, make sure to stop by and taste the delicious ice cream that you helped provide! Yum!!! Now, I am wondering how "mom" is going to keep the girls out of the ice cream & eating up profits! LOL!!!

Heads Up!

Don't get discouraged! I know the raffles started off slow, then they hit a high point, and now are back to being slow... But, do not get discouraged. Remember what we have already accomplished in the span of just 10 days!!

Maila's fundraiser received all of the funds her family needed to purchase the furniture, including a table where she can do her homework! (I can't wait to see those pictures!!)

Jonathan's fundraiser received all of the funds his grandmother needs to get her business started. I have yet to see his grandmother smile, so I am hoping these pictures will include her with a big grin on her face!

Gema's fundraiser is really close to completion now. Only a little over $100 to go!!

Araceli's house fundraiser is almost halfway completed, and Mwanza's house fund came closer than it has ever been to looking like the just might get a home! Two homes for Christmas would be terrific!!!

I know everyone is feeling a little tapped out right now. Maybe next year's raffles, since we know they are coming up, will be more enjoyable. (where we can enjoy them all the way to the end).

Now, that being said, tomorrow is Friday, so I'm hoping it will bring more funds to the projects for pay day~ There are only 2 days of Christmas left!

Now, for those of you who thought the fundraisers and raffles weren't doing very much or were not so successful, here is the 10 day update:

The 12 days of Christmas raffle-thon at the 10 day mark has brought in a total of $2,282!! That is $228.20 per day!!! Are you kidding me?!?!?! Talk about awesome!

Here is the actual break down day by day of the 10 raffles so far:

Day 1= $19
Day 2= $40
Day 3= $411
Day 4= $64
Day 5= $113
Day 6= $28
Day 7= $1170
Day 8= $75
Day 9= $317
Day 10= $15

10 day total: $2,282

Ok, I know I always say this, but what more can I say: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!

On the 10th Day of Christmas...

my sponsor gave to me...

10 ice cream flavors!

Up for raffle today is this:

Tourist Guide of Lisbon with very nice pictures of the city and also travel tips (for someone who would eventually visit).

This is a great book to offer to someone who likes traveling and/or to know about other cultures.

$1 = 1 raffle ticket

The fundraiser being highlighted today is for Gema and her family to have an ice cream shop. This will help improve the family's income which plummeted after Gema's mother had a baby and was unable to work. We only need $140 to provide the family with this business!!

To enter the raffle, here is the link

And the winner for Day 6 is...

Steve!!!

On the 6th Day of Christmas...

my sponsor gave to me...

6 ice cream scoops!

This fundraiser is for the Guatemala Ice Cream Shop. We are getting very close to completing this fundraiser as well. Very exciting!

The raffle for today is a CD that ships directly from Portugal. Since, I don't know anything about Portuguese music, I have to refer to Su's email. This is what she said:


This raffle is for a "Fado CD named "The art of Amalia Rodrigues".


Amalia was the greatest fado singer ever in Portugal. Fado is a typical Portuguese type of music known all over the world.


This is a great gift for any music lover!


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Amália da Piedade Rodrigues, GCSE, GCIH, (July 23, 1920 – October 6, 1999), also known as Amália Rodrigues (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈmaliɐ ʁuˈdɾiɡɨʃ]) was a Portuguese singer and actress.
She was known as the "Rainha do Fado" ("Queen of Fado") and was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. In fact, she was one of the most important figures in the genre’s development, and enjoyed a 40-year recording and stage career. Rodrigues' performances and choice of repertoire pushed fado’s boundaries and helped redefine it and reconfigure it for her and subsequent generations. In effect, Rodrigues wrote the rulebook on what fado could be and on how a female fadista — or fado singer — should perform it, to the extent that she remains an unsurpassable model and an unending source of repertoire for all those who came afterwards. Rodrigues enjoyed an extensive international career between the 1950s and the 1970s, although in an era where such efforts were not as easily quantified as today.


--------------------
Fado (Portuguese:destiny, fate) is a music genre which can be traced from the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. However, in reality fado is simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain structure.

The music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade (that has no match in English but it could be understood as nostalgia felt while missing something or someone important), a word describing a sentiment.

Mainstream fado performances during the 20th century included only a singer, a Portuguese guitar player and a classical guitar player but more recent settings range from singer and string quartet to full orchestra. Known as the "Rainha do Fado" ("Queen of Fado"), Amália Rodrigues was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. Other famous fado singers include: Carlos do Carmo, Cristina Branco and Mariza."

To enter the raffle, it is 1 raffle ticket for each dollar donated. The donations for today need to go to the delicious ice cream shop.

And the winner for Day 2 is...

Drum roll, please... Gema received $40 in donations yesterday! Thank you to all who participated!!! Now, I know you are anxiously awaiting the winner. First, I am going to tell you how Su drew the names... This is what she wrote:

"As a true computer engineer that I am, I did an excel file with numbers 1 to 40 (for the 40$ donated) and in front of them the name of the person who donated. For instance Dana had 20 tickets (for example, numbers 1 to 20), Kate had 4 (ex: 21 to 24) and so on.

Then I used a random number generator (http://www.random.org) to give me a number between 1 and 40 and it turned out that the number drawn out corresponded to one of Dana's ticket.

Ok, just in case you wanna know how I did it"

So, Dana is the winner!!! Yay!

2nd Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas, my sponsor gave to me...

2 waffle cones!!

Actually, we want to provide a whole ice cream business. This is another income generating project that should help the family tremendously!

Su is offering the item pictured above for today's raffle. It ships directly from Portugal. It is a nice set of 6 mini-bottles of port wine

It contains several different types of port wine: red, white, ruby, lagrima (which is a sweeter white wine) and a special reserve!

I personally don't know anything about wine, so I can't elaborate on this gift. However, doesn't it look nice! I'll be putting in for the raffle, so that I can give the gift to one of my husband's sisters who loves wine.

Here is where you need to donate: Gema's Fundraiser

***A special note, since this is the first year we are doing this, we are still working out some kinks. This is what I think will work out better to give everyone a chance to enter the raffles: The raffle will start as soon as I post it, and won't end until the next day when I post the new raffle. This will give those that live in Europe and other faraway places a chance to enter the raffle without having to get up in the middle of the night to do so.
Also, the raffle winner for the day before will be announce the next evening. This will give each raffle host time to tally up the tickets & draw the name.)

How are we measuring up?

We are doing so terrifically on these fundraisers!!! If you haven't had a chance to pat yourselves on the back, go ahead and take the time to do that now :0) This is how it stacks up for the current 3 fundraisers:

Maria and Ullysette's fundraiser target is $535. In only one month's time, $190 has been raised for this project!!! That is incredible! Only $345 to go!

http://www.firstgiving.com/betterlatethannever

Jonathan's fundraiser target is $541. In two month's time $243.10 has been raised! Only $297.90 to go!

http://www.firstgiving.com/igp4jonathan

Gema & Crystal's fundraiser target is $391, & $151 has already been raised! That leaves only $240 to go!

http://www.firstgiving.com/icecreamigp

Remember that you can help these fundraiser by purchasing magazines/cookie dough with the magazine fundraiser link on the right. Or, how about purchasing the Christmas cards for your sponsor kids through the card link on the right. Both of these links provide income to our fundraiser. We didn't sell any magazines or cookie dough last month, but Christmas is coming, so now is the time for these great products!

You don't have to buy the items to help the fundraisers, there is another way to help. You can do as Alice did, and just spread the word! She was able to generate sales, and then, able to tell me how she wanted the revenue disbursed. Go to the link, and from there, you can send an e-mail directly to anyone on your contact list.

Any revenue you generate, you can decide where you want the money to go. So, the more people you tell, the more opportunities for money going to your fundraiser!

Our New and Improved Necklace/Lollipop Fundraiser!

Another fundraising day! I am worn out!! All week I have been working on preparing for this garage sale/ fundraiser. I placed an ad in two local papers, sent notifications to my homeschool co-op group, made a few Craigslist postings, and placed signs out with balloons.

This morning, the girls and I had "Friday School". We got up bright and early and headed out to school where I teach the 2 and 3 year old class. I spent 4 hours with the 8 little munchkins, teaching them about Kangaroos and reading several books including "Katy No-Pocket" and "Good Night Moon". Then, at noon, we rushed home, ate lunch really quickly, got in the car, placed signs out on the street, drove back to the house, unloaded everything out of the garage into the yard and driveway... We were all set up by 1PM, and we already had 5 customers!! Whew! It was exhausting, but good to see profit finally! We were only open for 4 hours today, but tomorrow will be 9 hours of hopefully non-stop action!

This is how I changed up the fundraiser portion. I had already placed a sign out last time showing who the fundraiser was for, but this time I:

1- Put the sign with pictures on the PAYING table where I was sitting.

2. Put the lollipops and necklaces on the same PAYING table

3. Changed the price of the necklaces from $5 to $2 (and decided I would front the cost of the supplies, so that my girls would see the fruit of their labors)

All of that made a big difference, not to mention the advertising brought a lot of people out to begin with. There were two sweet young girls that I remember in particular. They liked the necklaces, and thought what Jaden and Morgan were doing was "so cool" (their words). They bought a necklace each, but then, came back to buy 2 more necklaces because they said it was "too cool" what the girls were doing, and they wanted to be a part of it! So, $8 from them!

Then, I had my friend buy 3 lollipops for her girls, and two other people bought 2 lollipops a piece... for a total of $3.50

The fundraiser raked in $11.50. I know it's not much, but I am not disappointed. Tomorrow will be a longer day, and I am hoping the very sweet "necklace girls" will tell their friends about the "too cool" fundraiser and come back tomorrow.

I haven't actually put the funds in the bank yet because I need change for tomorrow, but so far, this is what I have put into the fundraisers out of the $11.50 earned today:

$3 to Robyn's Fundraiser

$3 to Su's Fundraiser

More to come ladies! I am dividing the funds into the 3 current fundraisers, so stay tuned for more funds on Monday~ And, I will let everyone know the outcome of it tomorrow!

Ice Cream Shop Fundraiser #16

Gema (8) and Crystal (12) are two sisters that live in Guatemala city. Gema is sponsored by Su and Crystal is sponsored by Su's boyfriend: Bernardo.When Su started sponsoring Gema, back in March 2008, both their parents worked as office workers. Some months later Bernardo started sponsoring Crystal, which was probably a relief for the family.However, in August 2008, their baby brother was born and the family income dropped to half due to the fact that the mother, Julia, stopped working. Now, the family has to support 4 children with only the father's income, while a year ago they had only 3 children and the double of the income.«Due to the global crisis we were afraid that if the father lost their job for some reason, the family would have no way to pay for food. Therefore we asked CI if Julia would be willing to set an Income Generating Project. We believe that working near her home would make it easier to look for the baby.»It turns out the family would like to start sell ice cream cones. The start up costs would total

$362.00. The breakdown of costs is as follows:-

Ice cream freezer $340.00-

60 waffle cones $9.00-

Icy palettes $5.00-

Ice cream flavors $8.00

Being Guatemala city a touristic destination and being hot all year-round, this is something that definitely will allow the family to increase their monthly income!

http://www.firstgiving.com/icecreamigp

So close!

http://www.firstgiving.com/igp4nsenzeni

I hope everyone can help with this fundraiser. It only needs $200 more, which is the amount of our small fundraisers that we originally started with. I know these large fundraisers are hard to fund, and most of us are short on cash. Soon we will be back to the lower amounts, and these will move more quickly. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Every dollar counts, so if you can donate $1 or $3 or whatever, it all adds up!!

2. Once this one funds, we will go on to the next fundraiser!!

3. Here is the list of fundraisers coming up soon after this one... Make sure that you have put in your 25% by the time it is time to launch your fundraiser, so that it doesn't get delayed!:

Next in line~ Crystal & Gema (Su)

2nd in line~ Maila (Steve)

3rd in line~ Adriana (Candace)

4th in line~ Yamileisy (Dee)

These other sponsors, bless their hearts, have been given the short end of the stick!! Jennifer and Robyn have both been pushed out to later fundraisers because of problems getting the reply back from the field. Jennifer got a reply from the field, but instead of giving us a fundraiser of $500 or less, they requested $2,500!! Because Robyn's was being delayed, we sent another request out for a different child of hers, that way at least one will come back in time! I hope that by the time Dee's is getting ready to finish, they will have their responses that they need!