Sub For Santa Fundraiser by Zackary

Sub For Santa Fundraiser by Zackary - November 2019 Scholarship Essay

Student council has been a huge part of my life. I have served on student councils since 6th grade. One reason I love being a member of student council is the focus on service. Every year my high school student council does a Sub-for-santa fundraiser for families in financial need. Last year we decided to raise money not just for families in the community at large, but for specific students we identified at our school who had a serious financial need. While deciding who to help, I heard the stories of the students at our school that were struggling. Before this, I had no idea the need at our school was so great. The culmination of the fundraising effort is a night where we go door to door caroling, get the students involved with various activities, and host a huge carnival for the community. The success of the fundraiser depends a lot on getting people to attend the carnival. I was in charge of marketing so my responsibility was to contact individuals and businesses in the community and invite them to attend and hopefully donate.
We decided that a great way to market the event was to create a video featuring the stories of the students we were helping that could be posted online and shared. I led the team that produced the video. In the video we interviewed students and teachers who then told the stories of those we were helping. It created a sense of unity in our school and inspired many people to donate to the fundraiser. One generous donor was so inspired by the video and the stories that were shared that he anonymously donated $10,000 which helped us exceed our goal of $20,000.
This was the single greatest service experience of my life. Though it took an incredible amount of time and effort over the course of a few months, we impacted the lives of three students at our school in a profound way. And as always happens when we serve, I was impacted too.