Kalina MacKay is the 2020 Public Relations Chair
This weekend, we are launching our first ever fall fundraising campaign, F10K. We’re striving to raise $10,000 during the three days of homecoming weekend through benefit nights at local restaurants, canning at athletic events, and individual dancer fundraising. But to me, this weekend means so much more.
I think it’s so easy for us to get lost in the numbers of a fundraising campaign like this, but F10K is symbolic of much more than the average fundraising campaign. F10K is an opportunity for all of us to take a breath and remember why we’re here - why we’re dedicating hours on end on top of our already busy lives to attend cannings, send countless emails, go to meetings, and paint posters.
The true reason why over 200 undergraduates at UNC all banned together this semester on 11 different committees and joined this organization is as simple as our organization’s slogan: for the kids. Those three words are more meaningful than I can begin to describe, and they share a special sense of inspiration for everyone involved in our organization.
This weekend is a chance for all of us to come together and remember that slogan that drives all of our efforts.
The average child goes to school and does their homework each weeknight. They go to sleep at bedtime and count down the seconds until the bell rings at Friday setting them free. For the three days of the weekend, kids are allowed to be kids. They get a break from the stressful day-in and day-out routine of school and work and get to just relax.
Kids at the hospital are not as fortunate. For 24 hours each day, they are fighting for their lives. They have no weekend to look forward to where they’ll get to go to the playground and blow off some steam. All day, every day is consumed by their illness, and sickness knows no weekends.
That is the root of our F10K campaign. We are not mindlessly collecting money for some obscure foundation. We are banding together to make real change in the world. This campaign is a reminder of our overall mission, to allow kids in the hospital to be kids.
As a group of undergrads at UNC, we may not be able to cure disease (yet), but we certainly can make a difference in the world. We can hope for a better future, and do everything in our power to achieve that. If we can take the patients of UNC Children’s’ minds off their suffering and allow them to be a child for just one moment, we have achieved our goal.
In this weekend long fundraising campaign, we hope to give the children at the hospital their weekends back. No child or family should ever have to fight alone. Whether it’s through funding research grants that will change their future or volunteering in the Pediatric Playroom to temporarily distract from the pain, we are determined to make a difference.
This weekend, we are launching our first ever fall fundraising campaign, F10K. We’re striving to raise $10,000 during the three days of homecoming weekend through benefit nights at local restaurants, canning at athletic events, and individual dancer fundraising. But to me, this weekend means so much more.
I think it’s so easy for us to get lost in the numbers of a fundraising campaign like this, but F10K is symbolic of much more than the average fundraising campaign. F10K is an opportunity for all of us to take a breath and remember why we’re here - why we’re dedicating hours on end on top of our already busy lives to attend cannings, send countless emails, go to meetings, and paint posters.
The true reason why over 200 undergraduates at UNC all banned together this semester on 11 different committees and joined this organization is as simple as our organization’s slogan: for the kids. Those three words are more meaningful than I can begin to describe, and they share a special sense of inspiration for everyone involved in our organization.
This weekend is a chance for all of us to come together and remember that slogan that drives all of our efforts.
The average child goes to school and does their homework each weeknight. They go to sleep at bedtime and count down the seconds until the bell rings at Friday setting them free. For the three days of the weekend, kids are allowed to be kids. They get a break from the stressful day-in and day-out routine of school and work and get to just relax.
Kids at the hospital are not as fortunate. For 24 hours each day, they are fighting for their lives. They have no weekend to look forward to where they’ll get to go to the playground and blow off some steam. All day, every day is consumed by their illness, and sickness knows no weekends.
That is the root of our F10K campaign. We are not mindlessly collecting money for some obscure foundation. We are banding together to make real change in the world. This campaign is a reminder of our overall mission, to allow kids in the hospital to be kids.
As a group of undergrads at UNC, we may not be able to cure disease (yet), but we certainly can make a difference in the world. We can hope for a better future, and do everything in our power to achieve that. If we can take the patients of UNC Children’s’ minds off their suffering and allow them to be a child for just one moment, we have achieved our goal.
In this weekend long fundraising campaign, we hope to give the children at the hospital their weekends back. No child or family should ever have to fight alone. Whether it’s through funding research grants that will change their future or volunteering in the Pediatric Playroom to temporarily distract from the pain, we are determined to make a difference.
At the end of the day, $10,000 will change so many lives. It will provide over 1,400 hot meals to parents in the hospital who don’t want to leave their child’s bedside, even if it’s to feed themselves. But no matter how much we raise, this campaign is a step in the right direction to joining the fight against childhood sickness.
We invite all past and present Tar Heels to join us in our F10K campaign on October 25 - 27. For live updates and a full breakdown of the schedule, visit our Facebook event page.
Thank you to the Chapel Hill community and beyond for continuously supporting our organization. Here’s to the children and their families served by UNC Children’s, together we will give them their weekends back.
We invite all past and present Tar Heels to join us in our F10K campaign on October 25 - 27. For live updates and a full breakdown of the schedule, visit our Facebook event page.
Thank you to the Chapel Hill community and beyond for continuously supporting our organization. Here’s to the children and their families served by UNC Children’s, together we will give them their weekends back.