Each year, our school-aged children typically fundraise for something for themselves, such as a class trip or individual prizes. This year, consider teaching your children how fundraising can be about helping someone else. There are plenty of charities that would love your help and the benefits for your child are endless.
Ways to Raise Money
You can help enrich the life of a child with a terminal or life-altering condition by having your child’s school collect change. Each class can compete to see who raises the most money and the winning class can receive a pizza party as a thank you prize.
Help raise money for a cure by holding a bike-a-thon or trike-a-thon for younger kids. Set up a small track for children to ride their bikes and tricycles around. Each child can raise money based on flat donations or per lap dollar amounts. It’s also a fun way to teach children about bicycle safety.
Ask your child’s school to participate in a “hat” day. This works well at schools that have a no hat policy. For one day, kids get to wear their favorite hat to school for a set cost, usually $1-$5.
Where to Donate
Make-A-Wish. Children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses receive granted wishes each year thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Hannah’s Hope Fund is a group that raises money to find a cure for giant axonal neuropathy, a genetic condition that leaves sufferers quadriplegic. Most die from GAN in their 20s or 30s. Hannah was diagnosed with GAN at age 4 and her parents learned that there was no research being done to find a cure for the condition. They started Hannah’s Hope in order to raise money to support the research that would cure their child.
St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Thousands of children’s lives have been saved thanks to the research done through St. Jude over the years. But each year, thousands more children need help to fight cancer or another life-threatening illness.