Volunteer Holiday Event Overview
On Friday, December 6th, the Norwell Volunteer Corps hosted their 6th annual holiday event raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The event consisted of activities and refreshments for young children and raffles for parents to participate in, all run by high school student members of the NVC. The advisor of the Norwell Volunteer Corps is Ms. Blumberg, and the co-presidents this year are senior Jess Johnston and sophomore Nicole Schindler, who all contributed to organizing and running the event.
Ms. Blumberg:
Can you explain how the money at the event is raised for Make-A-Wish? How many businesses participated this year?
All of the student members go out and ask local businesses for raffle items like gift cards or gift baskets to help prepare the raffle for the Volunteer Corps to sell raffle tickets to parents, students, and the community. Most of the money donated is made from the raffle. There was a $5 fee for children to get into the event for food and activities provided by the Volunteer Corps, which also contributed to the total donation.
About 50+ businesses participated this year in some way between all of the prizes and pizza provided.
How much money was raised this year? How much in total?
$3,478 were raised this year for donation, which is the most raised in all of the 6 years the event has run
$14,367 have been raised in total from all 6 events
How would you say the the turn-out for the event was?
About 125 kids between 3 and 10 ended up coming at some point, which was very exciting. There was a steady flow of kids and families, and many teachers brought their families too.
How many members of the NVC participated?
About 80+ were in attendance, but even more helped with the raffles prior, with picking raffle prizes up from a business or their families helping contribute, so most members of the Volunteer Crops helped out in some way.
Is there anything you want to say about the general mood of the event?
The event was really fun, and it was really special to see the high school students interact with the elementary school students in a positive way. The high schoolers disconnected from their phones and daily distractions to engage with and make the younger kids feel special. It was definitely very fun for the high school students
Nicole:
What was it like/how was it being president for the event?
Exciting, I got to greet guests going in and then walk around and see how everyone was doing, and check in on people to see if they had stuff they needed.
Did you notice a difference from being just a volunteer to a president of the whole group?
Yes, definitely! There was much more to do [as president].
Is there anything you want to say about the general mood of the event?
Everyone was so happy to be there! It was really exciting, everyone really enjoyed it.
