Letter writing this Friday 12/5

Hey guys,

For our meeting this Friday, we thought we would get together and write letters to friends and family letting them know about what we are doing and asking if they would like to donate. We have written up a basic outline for letters, but to make it more personal we are going to let everyone hand write their letters using the outline as a guide. Paper and envelope will be provided, but it would be nice if you could bring some of your own stamps. We will have some, and we can reimburse the cost with our club budget, but it would be much appreciated if you provided your own if possible. Also, bring addresses of friends and family so you can get your letters ready so we can send them off after the meeting. We will also talk (briefly) about how the penny wars turned out and how the book drive is going.

The Schools for Schools contest is coming to an end shortly and we need to work extra hard these last weeks to get Anaka Secondary School what it needs. So please, please take the time to write some letters to those you know. You never know who will help out until you ask! See you Friday!

Email back with any questions or suggestions....

Maddie and Louise

We're on Facebook

Oh the wonders of technology! we are now on facebook and feel free to make friends with us.  this is just another way we are trying to get more people involved and get the word out.  Just search for "Sehome Gao" and make us your friend!  Don't forget that were are in the process fundraising for Anaka secondary school in Ugana through Schools for Schools.  We would love to hear if you have any good fundraising ideas and would love your help! 

And so the fundraising begins...

Thanks to everyone who saw Invisible Children on Friday and came to our meeting. I think it was a great success! So, we have to begin fundraising very soon. Here are the main ideas we came up with, at least in the short term:

-Penny Wars (headed by Sarah Hyun)
-Book drive (headed by Ryan Roberts)
-Cafeteria/visuals/??? (headed by Brennan Ashton)
-Coin/donation jars at stores, games, farmers market etc (headed by Maddie Smith, Aissa Yazzie, Joe Murphy)

We want to get these all started up next week but there is stuff we need to do first: fundraising permission forms, publicity (posters etc), boxes for books, schedules for shifts, the list goes on and on.

The meeting on Friday will be (at least partially) about getting this organized, but feel free (please do) to get started now. THE SOONER THE BETTER as we are working under a deadline. If you are interested in any of these projects please contact the people listed, they are going to need help. And of course the officers are here if anyone has questions, needs help, etc. Lets just all try to keep in contact!

IMPORTANT: Before any actual fundraising is done, a form needs to be filled out and approved by the ASB. So if you need that before Friday (and the sooner the better) please talk to the officers, especially our treasurer Brailey Murray-Kraft.

Any more ideas, suggestions, improvements, please let the club know! We all want to make this project as successful as ever. Sara set us a goal of $10,000 which is a LOT but I know we can do it!

Thanks, see you Friday
Louise

INVISIBLE CHILDREN!!

Tomorrow, October 31st, Invisible Children will be here all day showing their new movie, GO, in the Little Theatre. After school in Ms. Brosseau's room we will be having a kickoff meeting for our Schools for Schools program. Representatives from Invisible Children will be here. It should be a great day - make sure you come and get all your friends fired up!

Catch The Bug!

Come play the AIDS Game with Slum Doctor this week in room 122 . Hopefully Brennan will bring Thai food, and we can get to know each other, have fun, and get educated about AIDS!!

See you this Friday!

And don't forget that Invisible Children will be coming to our meeting on Halloween, Oct. 31st!

xoxoxo

The GaoGirls

Meeing on 10-24

Hello All,

don't forget the meeting on October 24th. We have discussions, games, and possibly Thai food planned! As always you should come with fresh ideas.

On Friday, Oct. 31st, Invisible Children/Schools for Schools will be coming after school, post Invisible Children movie all-day extravaganza!!! We're hoping to put a spark of inspiration back in the students of Sehome to do something about the issues and war in northern Uganda. We can make a change!

-Phoebe
GAO publicist

Fundraising ideas

• Sell t-shirts, buttons, hats, bumperstickers, jewelry, other merchandise
  
• hunger banquet
• coin jars
• day without desks
• a showing of "GO" at the Pickford
• book and clothing drive, then resell to consignment stores
• play a song over the PA till a certain amount of money is raised
• benefit concert
• 24-hour dance-a-thon
• battle of the bands
• talent show
• swing dance and ice cream social
• Christmas caroling
• art gallery and auction
• make cards and sell them
• ask restaurants to donate a percent of night sales
• ask for free stuff and promotion
• sleep out in the streets 
• host a race/marathon/athletic event

please think of more and more!

WE CAN ALL MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN.

No meeting this friday

There will be no GAO meeting this Friday, October 17th. See you all next Friday and bring any Invisible Children fundraising ideas as we will be starting that up at end of the month.

What is Invisible Children?

Invisible Children is an organization based out of San Diego, CA whose main goal is to get the youth of today informed about the situation in northern Uganda. They have a program in the United States where high schools raise money for schools in Uganda that need it for supplies and repairs and upgrades so children in Uganda can have a save haven where they can get a good education.

The situation in Uganda is getting worse. For twenty three years Uganda has been in a civil war between the Lord's Resistance Army(LRA) and the Government of Uganda(GoU). During the duration of this war it is a common practice of the LRA to go around from village to village taking children from their homes and the streets. These kidnapped children are enslaved as child soldiers and forced to do as the LRA tells them. The demands range from(but are not limited to) servant like tasks to killing. They are kept in line by LRA leaders who instill fear in the children. They see other captives brutally killed right before their eyes, and sometimes they are even forced to kill those who act out or try to run away.

But organizations like Invisible Children bring light to the situation and have made it better. It is still a major problem, but is slowly getting better as time goes on and more light is shed on the problem. Part of this happens through the protection of children in towns, giving them a place to stay in the nights where they are safe from the LRA. Schools can be such places.

As the year progresses Students for GAO will be doing our part to fundraise for Schools for Schools and will keep an update on what we do.

check out their website at www.invisiblechildren.com

WE CAN ALL MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN.

We have begun!!

The two first meetings of Students for Global Awareness and Outreach have come and gone with ease! Discussions over fundraising ideas consisting but definitely not restricted to: benefit concert, day with out desks, fast, dinner/banquet, and some sort of blank-a-thon. If you can think of any other ideas please let us know!

We also had Barbara Rofkar (chair) from the Whatcom Human Rights Task Force come speak today. Barbara talked to the group about what the WHRTF does for the community and it's members who feel they are being discriminated against. She also informed us about the events held by WHRTF: the Martin Luther King Conference and the Human Rights Film festival are their two main events.

Stay tuned for more information, especially about our involvement with Invisible Children's Schools for Schools!

WE CAN ALL MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN.