Here's how we're taking action in our community:
I found out that my school was going to hold its first annual Ripple Kid Fair and I excitedly wanted to sign up. I loved participating at Ripple Kid events at my old school, and I thought that I would take a risk, and start my own Ripple Kid Project. I was brainstorming for a few days for project ideas which gave me headaches, but one thing that I was positive about was that I was going to support the MaxLove Project. This organization and the Wilford Family holds a special place in my heart, because they are trying to make a difference in fighting childhood cancers. I want to help stand up to cancer because in the past couple of years, I know many people who are fighting cancer.
Here's how we got the idea:
It was just another long trip to Costco, unfortunately there were no samples at the time, darn it! and my mommy and I went out to the garden center that recently opened. It was a jungle! There were so many people buying plants. My mommy saw and bought a three pack of succulents for $12.99. I asked my mommy if it was okay if I could pick up the loose buds off the floor. I wanted to plant the buds when I got home because I knew that succulents were easy to grow. And thats when the lightbulb went off in my head. I will be selling succulents!
These are the steps we took:
I knew I needed soil, planters and succulents. I asked my mommy if I could recycle the bottles and cans in our garage and use that money to buy the soil. She agreed. We got $27.59 from the recycling and bought a large bag of cactus mix. and two more succulent plants that I thought would make my planters look amazing. We had about twenty different succulents already at my house that I could trim, but I kept thinking how to make them special. At my old school, lets just say it was succulent city. Being able to get succulents from my old school would really make my planters special!!! It would represent SuperMax and Arroyo Elementary s history of the Rainbow Loom-a-thon. I emailed the principal over spring break to see if it was okay to snip some succulents from the school campus. The principal was very kind and agreed to let me come and trim the succulents. The only things left was planters, I didnt have any money left for pots. My mommy suggested using tins cans, it was cheap and free. A second lightbulb exploded brightly in my head. I can decorate the cans with Rainbow Loom chains and charms.
Here are some of the results:
I decorated 23 cans and was selling them between $1.00 - $5.00 depending on the size of the cans. On the day of the fair, I sold all the plants in 30 minutes! After cleaning up, my mommy let me count the money to see how much we raised. With my mind focusing on counting the money correctly I discovered that I sold $104.00 of succulents.
These are the people who volunteered with me:
My family, An organization
One of the coolest things that happened during my project was:
One of the coolest things that happened, was that I meet a wonderful lady named Abby, she works for the MaxLove project and she gave me a lot of support and resources for my table.
One of the most important things I learned was:
I learned that anyone can make a difference and that when I emailed grown ups for a favor, they made me feel like grown up too! This Ripple Kid project made me more confident and inspired.