August 21, 2020
Lego's for Riley is an idea that my friend Jesi had. She came up with this idea because she is a Riley kid and was in the hospital for her diabetes. She experienced boredom at times because there wasn't much to do. She shared her experience at Riley with Whitney and I, and we all wanted to jump on board to help other Riley kids. Jesi said that she liked playing with Legos while in the hospital and it was a fun way to let the hours pass. We thought it would be fun to do a Lego drive. The idea is to collect as many lego boxes as possible, as well as donations to buy lego boxes. Not only did we want to get the school involved, but also the community. We decided it would be cool to place donation boxes and Riley donation buckets around New Pal. We called places in New Pal to get approval about putting donation boxes and buckets in their business. Some were compliant, but others we had trouble with. The smaller business approved our pitch and said we could place a box and donation bucket at their location. We got approval from BRCC, celebrations child care, axe threads, Hancock pediatrics, and the Indianapolis fire department. We are waiting approval from Needlers. Mr. Large also gave us the idea to do a Riley wishlist on Amazon. This will make things easier for people to donate because they don't have to go out and buy Legos. Mr. Large also said we could promote these donation locations and the wishlist on New Pal parents and twitter. We are working on flyers/social media posts to post on those sites. To get our school involved we thought it would be a good idea to place donation boxes and Riley buckets in the front office and library. We made flyers to promote those donations. We also got in touch with the front office to promote the donations through the weekly announcements. Another idea we had was a Lego Drive Volleyball game. We thought if someone brought a box of Legos, they could be entered into a raffle. We went and talked to Mr. Wright about the idea and he approved. The Lego drive night will be August 26. We are planning on going to restaurants to get gift cards for the raffle. We have made a flyer to promote this night so that it's a big hit. |
September 4, 2020
The past two weeks have been super successful! We had a little bit of a rough patch at the beginning, but it got better. We were planning to have a Lego Drive night on August 26th at the volleyball game, but it got cancelled because of Covid. We wanted to reschedule to September 1 and Mr. Wright approved. To get more people to come, we thought it was a good idea to have a gift card raffle and free t-shirt giveaway to anyone who donates a Lego box or a $5 donation. Mr. Large gave us the idea of asking local businesses to donate gift cards. We called some places and Brew 52 and Team Image donated a $20 and $25 gift card. We made a flyer and promoted the game on Twitter and our Newsletter. There was a table set up right outside the main gym for donations. Whitney and I brought a donation bucket, paper, a decorated Lego Drive box, and pens. We sat behind the table and wrote down names of people who brought a Lego box or $5+. Many people asked question on what it was, and after explaining, some of them donated! It was a little slow during the JV game, but once the varsity game started, many people showed up with boxes. After the 2nd set of the varsity game, we drew names and gift cards. We had 5 gift cards and 5 winners. We collected 15 boxes and $75 that night.
We also picked up lego boxes from the church and checked with places we put donation boxes in. Whitney and I also told our soccer team about the idea and we have already have some from our teammates! We also reached out to our coach about the idea of having a Lego drive night at a soccer game and she was totally on board. She gave us the idea of making it a competition between the two teams. We have lots of home games coming up so it'll be easy to find a day.
Overall we have collected around 50 Lego boxes and $75, not including purchases from our wishlist on Amazon. With the money we collect, we are going to buy more Lego boxes. The drive ends September 24th, and their are so many opportunities to collect more Legos.
The past two weeks have been super successful! We had a little bit of a rough patch at the beginning, but it got better. We were planning to have a Lego Drive night on August 26th at the volleyball game, but it got cancelled because of Covid. We wanted to reschedule to September 1 and Mr. Wright approved. To get more people to come, we thought it was a good idea to have a gift card raffle and free t-shirt giveaway to anyone who donates a Lego box or a $5 donation. Mr. Large gave us the idea of asking local businesses to donate gift cards. We called some places and Brew 52 and Team Image donated a $20 and $25 gift card. We made a flyer and promoted the game on Twitter and our Newsletter. There was a table set up right outside the main gym for donations. Whitney and I brought a donation bucket, paper, a decorated Lego Drive box, and pens. We sat behind the table and wrote down names of people who brought a Lego box or $5+. Many people asked question on what it was, and after explaining, some of them donated! It was a little slow during the JV game, but once the varsity game started, many people showed up with boxes. After the 2nd set of the varsity game, we drew names and gift cards. We had 5 gift cards and 5 winners. We collected 15 boxes and $75 that night.
We also picked up lego boxes from the church and checked with places we put donation boxes in. Whitney and I also told our soccer team about the idea and we have already have some from our teammates! We also reached out to our coach about the idea of having a Lego drive night at a soccer game and she was totally on board. She gave us the idea of making it a competition between the two teams. We have lots of home games coming up so it'll be easy to find a day.
Overall we have collected around 50 Lego boxes and $75, not including purchases from our wishlist on Amazon. With the money we collect, we are going to buy more Lego boxes. The drive ends September 24th, and their are so many opportunities to collect more Legos.
September 18, 2020
The past two weeks have been pretty low key with this project. We have been waiting on donations being placed in boxes around the community and donations being placed on our amazon wishlist. We haven't picked up the donations from the community, but we are planning to do that next week. Lego's For Riley ends September 24, or next Friday. So far we have collected around 55 physical Lego boxes, around 15 Lego's from our Amazon wishlist, and around $8o. We are planning on using the donated money to buy more Lego sets. This Lego Drive has been pretty successful and I'm happy with how much we have accomplished so far. We have to figure out how and when we are going to get the Lego's to Riley hospital. Jesi has some connections, so I think we are going to brainstorm with her and figure out when the best time is. We also have to figure out the best sanitary way we can donate the Lego boxes because of the whole Covid situation. By next Friday, the drive will be over and I am excited to see how many boxes we donate. |
September 30 2020
The drive ended last Friday and it's safe to say it was super successful. The past week, we have collected boxes from the local locations we placed donation boxes. I picked up the box from my dad's office in greenfield, and let me tell you, I was surprised with how many boxes were donated! After dropping every box off at Jesi's, she counted the boxes and money collected. There was a variety of Legos, both boys and girls. We did notice there were more boys' Legos than girls' Legos. We collected 98 boxes and around $160 in total. We decided to go out this week and buy Legos with the donated money. We went to Walmart because they have a huge assortment of different types of Legos. We picked up a little more girl Legos than boy Legos to even out the amount we had. At checkout, we used all the money we had and bought around 13 Lego boxes. We dropped the boxes off at Jesi's house to add to the collection we already had. Altogether, we collected around 110 Lego boxes to donate to Riley patients. Now we are trying to figure out when to give the boxes to Riley. We were going to wait till 4th quarter to donate them, but Jesi called and Riley said we could donate the boxes the week of October 25th!
The drive ended last Friday and it's safe to say it was super successful. The past week, we have collected boxes from the local locations we placed donation boxes. I picked up the box from my dad's office in greenfield, and let me tell you, I was surprised with how many boxes were donated! After dropping every box off at Jesi's, she counted the boxes and money collected. There was a variety of Legos, both boys and girls. We did notice there were more boys' Legos than girls' Legos. We collected 98 boxes and around $160 in total. We decided to go out this week and buy Legos with the donated money. We went to Walmart because they have a huge assortment of different types of Legos. We picked up a little more girl Legos than boy Legos to even out the amount we had. At checkout, we used all the money we had and bought around 13 Lego boxes. We dropped the boxes off at Jesi's house to add to the collection we already had. Altogether, we collected around 110 Lego boxes to donate to Riley patients. Now we are trying to figure out when to give the boxes to Riley. We were going to wait till 4th quarter to donate them, but Jesi called and Riley said we could donate the boxes the week of October 25th!
Building up Hope