Trying to get my small (as in less than 150 people) school involved is proving harder than I thought. I had to really slap this campaign together with some gluestick and a prayer. I designed a T-Shirt (which I have previously posted) and it was then made into a reality. The shirts were sold with the awesome bracelets TWLOHA sent us. A shirt and bracelet cost $15 together. The shirts themselves cost $6 to make, which makes every shirt a $4 profit, plus the $5 from the bracelets. We sold $40 packages, which I was surprised. Initially I thought everyone would want one, I mean, how COOL is this!? A small town in the middle of a cornfield gets the opportunity to do this!?

Maybe I'm easily excited. But after my team and I hosted a brief essembly (after hours of prep, powerpoint errors, having to fight with the projector screen prompting "How many women does it take to pull a string?" jokes), I realized, not everyone is as enthusiastic as I am. Maybe I had overestimated our school. Maybe I was the only one who had found hope and faith through TWLOHA. I expected to sell a solid 3 shirts (for myself, my mom, and sister after much pressuring). But 40? I was excited. This was a $360 profit. Plus we sold $200 worth of cans of the pop Crush for Valentine's day ("Send a Crush to your crush!" haha. Punny).

We got the t-shirts on Monday, just in time for our Day of Hope (tomorrow, Wednesday February 29th). To my delight, people actually LIKED them. A LOT. I got COMPLIMENTS from people who didn't even purchase one!! They wanted more! They wanted more shirts! Excitement. So we're ordering more. I guess I did get my point across in even through my stuttering.

For our Day of Hope, I wanted to do a "togetherness-we-love-each-other activity" but I'm having trouble coming up with something that will keep teenagers having fun without it getting cheesy and boring. My team and I are going to school bright and early to "tag" everyone's lockers with inspirational quotes and motivational words.

I have included a picture of the front of the shirt (the back says courage brings us together, love makes us stronger). It's simple, but it gets the point. Any more activity ideas would be greatly appreciated!