52 Week Fundraising Challenge

 

Some of you may have seen the “52 Week Money Challenge” that has been making the rounds on Pinterest, various blogs, and Facebook.  The concept is simple – each week you set aside an amount equal to the week of the year.  So, you set aside $1 in week 1, $2 in week 2, $3 in week 3, and so on, until week 52, when you are saving $52.  The beauty of this system is that you should not feel a huge pinch in your budget as you increase your savings amount because each week you only need to find $1 more than you saved the week before.  Though the amounts seem small in the beginning, by the end of the year you will have saved nearly $1400!

Our large fundraising goal this year is to complete the fundraising for the construction of the new classrooms for the Galilee Primary School.  Wouldn’t it be fun if we all tried the “52 Week Money Challenge” to benefit our Nairobi Kids?  If you can take the challenge as described above you could contribute $1378 to the effort – that is a quarter of a classroom!  If using dollars will not work for your budget, the system is easily modified to save in 50 cent increments (yielding $689 at year end), quarters (yielding $344.50 at year end), dimes (yielding approximately $137 at year end), or even nickels (yielding approximately $69).  Any amount is appreciated!  You could also do the challenge in reverse if you tend to have more money at the beginning of the year than at the end.  However you choose to execute the challenge, these funds would go a long way toward putting our kids in safe, dry classrooms by 2015!

If you would like to print out a template showing how much to save each week, the Life As You Live It Blog has templates available for the system using dollars, 50 cent increments, and quarters, as well as saving dollars backwards.

For more information on our Buy-a-Brick campaign to build new classrooms for the Galilee Primary School, visit www.plantabook.org or email info@plantabook.org.

~submitted by Brooke

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Construction on the New Primary Classrooms Has Begun

Construction has begun on the two primary classrooms that we have partially funded to date!  These classrooms will replace the dilapidated, temporary structures that the children in the Galilee Primary School currently occupy.  We need only $1396 more to fully fund these two classrooms.  Assuming that we are able to raise the remaining funds, construction is expected to take approximately two months.  This timing will allow the students to move into the new classrooms during the first term of the new school year. 

Please help us raise the funds to complete the construction of these first two classrooms by making a donation to our Buy-a-Brick Campaign.  For more information on the Buy-a-Brick Campaign, please visit www.plantabook.org or email info@plantabook.org.

~submitted by Brooke

Update on the Buy-a-Brick Campaign

Thanks to our generous donors we continue to make progress in our fundraising efforts to replace the temporary Galilee Primary School classrooms with safe, permanent structures.  Our current goal is to build six ground-floor classrooms for the primary students.  To date, our Buy-a-Brick Campaign has raised enough money to fund our first classroom, and we are working on funding a second classroom.

 

One of the temporary Galilee Primary School classrooms needing replacement.

Our campaign recently received a significant boost from a contribution by the students at Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Sydney, Australia.  The children there held a Busking Day to collect money for charity, and were able to raise $515 toward the construction of our second classroom.  Thank you, Our Lady of Lourdes, for helping to build safe, dry classrooms for the primary students at Galilee!

We need only $1396 more to fund the second classroom.  Please consider making a donation to the Build-a-Brick Campaign as part of your Christmas or end-of-the-year giving.  We would love to have the second classroom paid for before we close out 2013!

For more information on the Buy-a-Brick Campaign, please visit www.plantabook.org or email info@plantabook.org.

~submitted by Brooke 

Buy a Brick Campaign

The classrooms serving the Galilee Primary School students were intended to be temporary. As primitive as they are, they have actually served our kids for many years now.  The walls and roof consist of sheet metal with rough wood pole supports, and one wall in each room is half sheet metal and half chicken wire to allow for airflow and a little light. The state of deterioration is very evident. The roofs are leaking, causing flooding during the rainy season. The children need and deserve a healthy and appropriate learning environment.

We would like to replace the classrooms with actual classroom buildings.  Each classroom costs $5737 to build. We would like to build six ground floor classrooms to begin and then eventually add second floor classrooms to those. This is the style of classroom that will replace the sheet metal and chicken wire ones:

 

Thanks to donations received through KKIN UK and Plant-a-Book International we have completely paid for one classroom to be constructed and are on our way to funding a second room!  Can you join us in this campaign? Any donation amount is welcome and will go a long way to creating adequate classrooms so our students can get the most from their education.

Please make your donation through the PayPal button on this site or write to info@plantabook.org.

Thanks for making a difference!