Fundraising

It's that time of year. We've got to make money, and quick.
When you have to earn in excess of $25,000, which we do for our service trip this year, bake sales and car washes just don't cut it. 
We've gotten good at raising (a lot) of money over the years. We've done spaghetti suppers and pancake breakfasts; published a church recipe book; offered Friday night Kids Nights Out (babysitting at church) and photos with Santa; hosted rock and folk concerts, a dance-a-thon and a contra dance; done Christmas Tree sales and dump runs; provided yard work, snow shoveling, computer and tv/stereo component set-ups; sold carol-grams and Gingerbread House Kits for Humanity; and delivered pies at Thanksgiving and subs on Super Bowl Sunday.
Basically, if you name it, we've done it. We even admit to selling the donated Sunday Social Hour food once when we were really hard up (which gave us the idea to sell lunch after church on Sundays!).  This year we're selling everything from stock in our trip to jewelry made out of hardware, electrical, and building supplies.  
Since the reality show The Apprentice aired, we've also divided our youth group into smaller teams of 5-10, had them create team names and posters, and compete to see which team could come up with the best fundraiser and earn the most money.  
It's a lot of work, and as several parents each year will always point out to me, it would probably be easier to just ask each youth to pay for the total cost of his/her trip, or to contribute some amount of money for our youth program expenses.  
But fundraising not only builds our bank account. It builds responsibility, gratitude, pride, and a great team.  By the time we arrive in the Gulf Coast this February, we will already know how to work together, and we won't waste any of the precious time we have because we'll know - probably down to the last cent! - how much every minute actually counts.