We've made a business based on our love for art and design, so when we heard that our friends at Breakthrough Greater Boston were short on funding to buy art supplies for their summer students, we immediately started our very first Crowdrise campaign. For a modest sum of $580, the summer program would be fully stocked up on paints, brushes, and paper— the basic tools any kid needs to explore his or her creative side.
(image: an idea is hatched!)
While there were instant likes and hearts after promoting the fundraising campaign through social media, the donations were only trickling in, and we worried we wouldn't make the goal on time. We had an impromptu brainstorming session about how to inspire folks to donate, during which Sabrina came up with the idea of telling our network of customers, vendors, friends, and family that I would personally bake cookies for the kids in the summer program if we achieved the goal. What a great way to "sweeten" the deal— ha!
Thanks to some awesome people (that's you, if you're reading this and donated!), we exceeded the goal by 28 percent (a combination of Crowdrise donations and checks made out directly to Breakthrough Greater Boston)! As promised, I spent one evening baking several batches of chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. Admittedly, I love to bake, so it was certainly not a chore.
(image: Deb on left and Sarah on right are greeted by Breakthrough folks.)
The next day, Sarah took a short break from work on a beautiful summer day to help me deliver all of the cookies at Breakthrough's Dorchester location. We took a few wrong turns getting there, which wouldn’t be that embarrassing except that Sarah lives in Dorchester and we had the GPS directing us. Eventually, we arrived at the hallways of Tech Boston Academy. While there, we experienced some serious high school flashbacks as we walked past the classrooms and lockers, smelling of fresh paint as prep work for the new school year was underway.
The cookie drop went off without a hitch, and we are so happy that we were able to support such hardworking kids! Many thanks to Oompa Williams for enthusiastically greeting us and graciously accepting the cookies on behalf of the students.