After waiting a couple weeks our equipment finally arrived to NPE. Mrs.Miller kept it stored for us until we were able to come and assess the area. The bigger pieces of play equipment was the challenge, so we called upon a custodian named, Junior. Junior was able to put together two big pieces of equipment, specifically the swing and play set. After getting those two big pieces into the area it started to fill up quickly. Kennedy and I picked out a date to come in and set everything up, so we could have our playground completed before we left for break. We decided on a Sunday with Mrs.Denise’s supervision and started putting together our vision. We started by putting together a tunnel that was shaped like a caterpillar and putting together mats for under the tunnel. We then set up the blocks into a pattern for the kids to play with and positioned the rest of the small blocks and mats. After setting everything up, the playground was finally complete and ready for action! I would like to thank all of the people that helped Kennedy and I accomplish a very important project. This was a necessity for the NPE preschool and will do a great service for the kids. Thank you for the donations, support and making this Little Dragons’ Dream a reality!!! Below the left is the BEFORE and the right is the AFTER, Thank You!!
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After the successful coin drive, we started to plan out the funding and setup of our play area. With a total of $1854 in spending money and a total of $500 dollars worth of equipment bought off the amazon wishlist, we were ready to shop! We first started by organizing and getting rid of all the old equipment, and with the help of the preschool teachers it was finished in two days. Our next task was setting up a list of items that the teachers agreed upon. We started by combining amazon lists. We used our Little Dragon’s Dream Amazon wish list and added the items left on the list to a new list. We still had a lot of money to use, so we started adding more items focusing on larger items. Once we created a long enough list with possible items, we gave it to the preschool teachers to look over and adjust. The teachers finalized the amazon wish list and agreed to purchase the items. Kennedy and I spent a weekend transferring the previously purchased items to a storage room at NPE. Each new piece of equipment will be shipped directly to NPE and will be stored there until our whole order has arrived. Purchasing this list of items was the hard part because the majority of our money was in cash and we were hoping to purchase from Amazon. After discussing with Mrs. Miller, she suggested having Mrs. Sellers, NPE's administrative assistant, handle the money and ordering. NPE's principal also liked this idea. We gave all of the money donated to Mrs. Sellers, and she added our funds to the bank account. Mrs. Sellers is able to use the NPE amazon account waves the tax and shipping costs making it the most efficient way of spending. We are currently waiting for the order to be purchased and finalized.
The week leading up to the coin drive Kennedy and I began to put on the final touches. We started by putting the finishing touches on our donation buckets, each teacher got a bucket labeled with their name, a flyer, a schedule card, and a labeled ziplock bag. We also printed 4 large coin drive posters to put around NPE. The weekend before the coin drive, Kennedy and I started setting up at NPE with the supervision of Mrs.Miller. We started by placing our posters in the hallways and then we delivered a bucket to each of the teachers’ rooms. We lastly decided on a plan and schedule for Kennedy and I the week of the coin drive. Kennedy and I decided that the most efficient way to pick up coins was to go to NPE on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. We had no idea what to expect for the outcome of this coin drive, so we decided on a goal of $400 by the end of the week with full participation in all the classes. We arrived Tuesday and started collecting the coins and was planning on updating the classes throughout the week on the winning class. We ran into a problem quickly because of the amount of coins we received by just the first couple classes. We decided that it was more efficient to just weigh each classes’ earnings and add any addition dollar bills to the total on a spreadsheet of each teacher. We also used a cart to carry all the bags and scale. After collecting all the coins, we had a great turnout with one class in particular bringing in $80 cash on the first two days. We sorted all the bags into grades and updated the teachers; on the winning class, Mrs. Canada. We lastly, started labeling a second bag of ziplocks to use on Thursday during collection. We arrived Thursday hoping for the same turnout and were happily surprised by the results. We quickly learned that some of the classes that previously were participating the least started bringing in more coins, but some of the classes started to slow down and bring less. Kennedy and I became more efficient in collecting the coins and weighing each class. After combining all the coins of each class into separate bags, it was obvious which classes were in the lead. Three of the preschool classes had the largest bags of coins which was did not surprise Kennedy and me. The last day of the coin drive Kennedy and I were already overwhelmed by the success. We started by stopping by Cake Hole to pick up the cupcakes and take them to NPE. When we arrived we went to the office and put the cupcakes in the PTO fridge for the winning class. Then we went to each classroom and collected each bucket for the last time. We separated each class for the last time and put them in big bags to be transported to the bank. My mom called ahead to First-Merchant Bank and they were able to wave the fee on their coin machine, so we went straight over to the bank. After hours at the bank and counting the amounts of each class separately, we received our total amount and the results for the winning class. We raised a total of $1,701.06!!! The winning class, Mrs.Miller’s preschool class raised $232.40. The coin drive was a total success exceeding all our expectations. We are super excited to start put this money to use!!
Kennedy and I started off our project by focusing on publicity and reaching out to local businesses. We first called each business but found it very hard to line up schedules and make time for each business. So, we decided to take a Wednesday to visit each business, introduce ourselves and our project and leave flyers. We stopped at New Palestine Hardware, New Palestine Library, CVS, New Palestine Nutrition, Subway, Mama Nitas, and Cake Hole. We put up flyers at each business except New Pal Hardware and CVS. New Palestine Nutrition and Cake Hole allowed us to leave a donation jar as well as a flyer. We got back to class and immediately started to brainstorm donation jar ideas with the help of Mr.Garrett who donated four jars from his business. Kennedy and I worked outside of school designing these jars and making little business cards to leave beside. Before dropping off these jars, we met with the NPE Principle, Mrs.Fosnow. Kennedy and I set up a meeting with Mrs.Fosnow to discuss possible fundraising and publicity possibilities. After a good talk, we decided to hold a coin drive and put large posters in NPE and NPHS. The coin drive is set to take place the week after fall break. This will be a week long competition between all the NPE classes to raise the most money. We discussed this cupcake party with Cake Hole and they agreed to graciously donate 36 cupcakes for the winning class on the following Monday. We need maximum participation from each class to make this a successful fundraising opportunity, so Kennedy and I designed a flyer for the coin drive. We sent this to Mrs. Fosnow and other preschool teachers to include in their newsletters. Our first obstacle preparing for this coin drive was finding enough buckets that were similar in shape and size to place in each classroom. Mr.Large suggested using old Riley buckets, so Kennedy and I grabbed 25 buckets and began the customization. This coin drive is the last large fundraising opportunity until the winter months start to arrive, so wish us luck!! My partner Kennedy Garrett and I have chosen to raise money to put together a new indoor playground for the NPE preschool. Kennedy and I took on this project because we both had a personal connection to NPE. Kennedy went to elementary school at NPE and my mom is currently teaching preschool there. Our goal for this project is to make an effective play area for the winter months giving these children a space to exercise and play. NPE was a very important part of our childhood, and we would love to give back to NPE by providing the Little Dragons' program with a wonderful indoor recess experience. Pitch Day! We started our project by putting together a slide show. Our main focus for this presentation was to show that we were properly prepared and ready to start this project as soon as possible. The most important part of our presentation was our resource slide because our project is being led by donations. Our plan for our main source of donation was contacting local businesses about publicity and setting up an Amazon Wish List. Another thought for possible donations was having a table at the high school sporting events. Before we knew it, Pitch Day came quickly. We got all dressed up and offered to go first with our presentation. Kennedy and I used critiques from our classmates and we focused on being more interactive with the audience. Our presentation was very successful with some comments from Mrs. Dawson and Mr. Large. One important tip was to use more sensory items that are more interactive for the kids. We added more of these items to our Amazon Wish List and made some adjustments to our projects based on other comments. We had a very successful pitch day and we're ready to get started! |
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AuthorAlaina Miller, Senior at New Palestine High School Archives
December 2021
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