23 Letters and 13 Shots
After my teacher told me about this trip in April of this year, my dream was to go to Rwanda with a group of my friends and teachers where we would ride our bikes and visit orphanages. When I originally proposed the idea to my parents they told me that this year we weren’t financially able to afford this trip to Rwanda. I decided to write a letter to all of my family and friends asking for support. I ended up sending out 23 letters and within one week after they went out, people started to respond. By the end of June I had all the money I needed for the trip and more - even enough to cover all of the vaccinations I was going to need (my parents had decided against most vaccinations when I was a child but we were told Africa was too dangerous to take this risk - I ended up getting 13 different shots!). But I was going to Rwanda!
What do you think of vaccinations? Were you vaccinated? Did you give your kids vaccinations? If not, why not?
| September 5th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Eliana — Clearly you wrote a very effective letter asking for support. I think a lot of teenagers need to write a letter like that at some point. Can you give some pointers on how to write a great fund raising letter?
Thanks and I’m so impressed with what you’ve done!
| September 7th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Cheryl - The letter was tricky. I had to act myself, but still be advertising what i needed. I told everyone how much i needed, and why it was so important that i needed the money. i made it so that it felt like they were helping a really good cause. Also after i had sent them out and people started responding, i sent them thank you’s and i made sure that it didnt feel like they had given their money and then never heard about the cause. Everyone responded with extreme generosity and kindness, and i cannot thank then enough.