CFTK’s annual Benefit Reception is one of our largest fundraising efforts of the year. Not only is it a fun way for CFTK to interact with the Chapel Hill community, but this is a silent and live auction that helps raise money for our organization, while also rewarding the attendees.
Kristin Van Epps is a member of the 2020 Public Relations Committee I stepped out of my car and was greeted with a downpour of rain- umbrella in one hand and the end of my dress in the other, I scrambled to enter The Franklin Hotel. Pushing my way through the circle sliding door, my eyes arrived at the elegant elements of the lobby. The walls were adorned with beautiful paintings and lime green couches providing a welcoming feel. As my friends and I entered the venue, we were greeted by polite executive members eager for us to enter the event. As the music filled my ears, I smiled at the people I saw in front of me. We were all here together - for the kids! On Jan. 24 at 8 p.m. Carolina For The Kids hosted its annual For(mal) the Kids. A black-tie event that was hosted at The Franklin Hotel. The event featured a cash bar, finger food, a coat check and even a photo booth! All ticket purchases went towards benefiting the patients and families of UNC Children’s.
This event provided college students of all grade levels the opportunity to participate in a formal experience while also benefiting CFTK. For the first time in the organization’s history, this year tickets sold out days before the day of the event - filling The Franklin to capacity. Women showed up in long dresses, short dresses and rompers while men showed up in tuxedos. The night was filled with laughter, dancing and happy memories. Some highlights of the night:
The formal alone raised over $3,000 for the kids - an overall successful event for both college students and patients and families of UNC Children’s. It was an opportunity for organizational members to spend time with each other outside of meetings, celebrate one another, dress up and acknowledge each committee members’ hard work for CFTK. Executive members, committee members, dancers and their guests congregated into the beautifully decorated Franklin Hotel. As the night went on, couples danced together, friend groups took pictures at the photo booth, people enjoyed snacks and drinks and supporting a good cause. This event was largely successful because of the amount of people willing to participate. For(mal) the Kids goes to show that support for CFTK comes in many forms - including formal! Thank you to those that attended the formal, The Franklin Hotel, and the entertainment committee that helped organize the event. We couldn’t have done it without you! Chloe Yopp is a member of the 2020 Public Relations Committee Spring semester is picking up — your schedule is starting to fill up and you’re trying to decide how to spend your time. Blocking off 12 to 24 hours of your time for one thing may seem impossible, but it really doesn’t have to be. Here are a few reasons you should reconsider and sign up for the marathon :)
5. Are there any performance groups on campus you’ve been dying to see, but haven’t been able to make it to each of their showcases? Well they’re probably performing at dance marathon and if you sign up, you’ll have the opportunity to watch so many performances. With a capella groups, jump rope teams, dance groups, and so much more you won’t be disappointed. UNCDM is the ultimate ticket to see the hottest talent at UNC all in one place. 6. Want to make an actual impact on lives? The last, and most important reason to sign up for UNC Dance Marathon is to make a difference. All of the money you raise will help provide emotional, medical and financial support to the patients and families of UNC Children’s. You’ll even get to meet some of those families during the marathon and see kids perform at our Kid Co-Captain Talent Show! If any of these things peaked your interest, then grab some friends and sign up for Dance Marathon! Spend 24 hours dancing, eating, watching fun performances, and helping the patients and families of UNC Children’s Hospital along the way.
Last chance sign-ups are available through February 21st at 11:59pm - don’t wait, sign up today! Ashlynne Hobcroft is a member of the 2020 Public Relations Committee Christmas is over and it is now time to bring in not only a new year, but also a new decade! It is now time to create resolutions and prepare for the 2020 UNC Dance Marathon. 1. Volunteer at the N.C. Children’s Hospital There are many ways for anyone to get easily involved with both the patients and the families of the hospital. Some ways you can get involved are through Parent’s Night Out or by helping with the Pediatric Playroom. Ask your committee chair for more info about getting involved. 2. Set a fundraising goal As we approach the 2020 Dance Marathon, you can’t forget to fundraise! Create a plan and stick to it in order to fulfill and hopefully succeed the $200 goal. If you need some inspiration on getting started, check out this blog for more fundraising tips. 3. Don’t forget about CFTK benefits!! Support CFTK in any way possible, by setting a personal goal to go to at least two or three benefits each month. This is a great way to explore some new restaurants in the area all while supporting the patients and families of UNC Children’s. Follow us on social media to stay up to date on all of our benefits throughout the year. 4. Recruit at least one friend to join CFTK in the fall!
As your friends become more involved, your motivation to become more invested into CFTK will not only sky rocket, but will also make your time in this organization one to remember. The spring semester will be over before you know it, and then you’ll have the chance to encourage even more friends to join you when committee recruitment week rolls around in August! Tori Langdon is a member of the 2020 Public Relations Committee As CFTK members, we take pride in participating in Pediatric Playroom at UNC Children's Hospital. This supervised space in the hospital provides children with games, toys, and crafts to enjoy, especially when being confined to the hospital for extended periods of time. Children can use this space to find an escape from their stress and boredom. It is crucial to have an outlet to calm or entertain the mind and maintain mental health.
As college students, we can experience stress and boredom as well, but perhaps in different ways. Regardless of the stressors in our lives, there is a fun and creative way to find a little escape: DIY (Do It Yourself) stress balls! You can make them for yourself or others, maybe as a gift for this holiday season! You could even make stress balls for the children you will meet when you participate in Pediatric Playroom! Stress balls for everyone! The creation process is easy, accessible, and affordable. There are also endless ways to design your stress ball so it can fit any unique personality! Here is a very helpful guide for creating a very helpful stress ball! What You Will Need:
Chloe Yopp is a member of the 2020 Public Relations committee. Last week was dancer recruitment week so you know what that means…it’s time to get HYPE about the marathon! Now I know what you’re all thinking, yeah I’m excited for the dance marathon, and of course I want to help the patients and families at UNC Childrens, but how in the world am I going to raise all that money? Well don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are five quick and easy ways to raise your $200 in no time (and maybe even have some fun while doing it :)) 1. Social Media BINGO (and other various social media endeavors) Everyone loves a good Instagram Story post and everyone loves playing games. Combine the two and what do you have? A great way to raise money FTK. Create a bingo board with totals ranging from $1-$5 and post it on social media with your Venmo username. Once one friend donates and everyone else sees, you’ll have raised money FTK in no time :) 2. Volunteer at Athletic Events Does the student ticket lottery seem to have a personal vendetta against you? No worries. You heard me correctly, you can go to a Carolina Basketball game AND make money for your dancer total at the same time! Information will be sent out via email and if you sign up for a ticket taking shift, you’ll be done by halftime and get to see the second half of the game. Volunteer, make money FTK and cheer on the Heels all at the same time… sounds like a win to me. #goheelz #natty #gdtbath 4. Letter Push
Does your grandma love getting letters in the mail? Want to reach out to family, but don’t have the time to buy stamps and address letters? Let us do it for you. Information will be sent out and all you have to do is put in the names and addresses of people you want to send letters to and voila! We’ll do all the rest. 5. Get Creative Are you ~artsy~? Paint or make drawings to sell to friends for money towards your dancer total. Do you live on the tenth floor of Hojo? Offer to take out your friends/suitemates’ trash for a small fee. Are you America’s Next Great Baker? Sell some yummy baked goods. Any other talents or ideas? Go for it! The moral of this story: there are SO many ways to raise money FTK and you are sure to pass that $200 goal in no time! Have fun with it, involve family and friends, and most importantly remember to thank everyone who donates. Remind them that they’re not just helping you reach your goal, but they’re directly impacting the lives of patients and families at UNC Childrens with their donation. See you all at marathon! Jenny Drury is a member of the 2019-2020 Public Relations Committee A couple days before Halloween, I went in to a Michael’s Craft Store looking for the finishing touches to my Halloween costume. To my surprise, it was easier to find gingerbread house kits and mistletoes than an angel halo headpiece or a fake pumpkin. The holiday spirit is so joyous, but what happened to the day where you surround yourself with the people you love the most and stuff your face with so much food until you go into a food coma? Sometimes we get too caught up in the fast-paced world we live in. It is really hard to just take a moment and enjoy everything at your disposal. Rather than looking at Thanksgiving as a reference point to the upcoming holiday season or looking forward to Thanksgiving because you know Black Friday follows, we should continue to cherish the importance of this holiday and use it as a time to pause and reflect. Thanksgiving is a time where one can be around their family and reflect on everything they’re grateful for. It is a time to acknowledge the smallest details that keep our lives going. There are so many times when I see college students, myself included, getting too caught up in the craziness of our daily lives, and we begin to complain and take things for granted. More often times than not we forget about how fortunate we are to simply be at college. I wanted to find more ways to express my gratitude and give back to the less fortunate. There are a number of kids at UNC Children’s who simply are not well enough to travel home to spend Thanksgiving with their families or whose families do not have the funds to visit them at the hospitals for Thanksgiving. Although CFTK is able to assist some families in reuniting with one another for the holiday, there remain a number of families who are unable to all get together. So rather than referring to Thanksgiving as the holiday that gets us one step closer to Winter Break or stressing out because there will be so much finals studying, sit back and appreciate all of the things that got you to where you are today. Say thank you to the person that holds the door for you; call your parents and tell them you love them; if you are able to travel home for Thanksgiving break, appreciate that you have the means to do this; tell your friends how grateful you are. There are so many ways and opportunities to express gratitude, so use Thanksgiving as the day to really start doing so. Nicole DeBlois is a member of the 2020 Public Relations Committee With Thanksgiving nearing, and the holidays coming up around the corner, there is a certain sense of generosity in the air. This sentiment coincides perfectly with Giving Tuesday, an opportunity to embrace generosity and all the good that it can accomplish.
Giving Tuesday is a movement that occurs the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, typically the last Tuesday in November, but occasionally occurs in early December, as it does this year on December 3rd. Giving Tuesday was initially started in 2012 as a backlash to consumerism in the midst of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The organizations who started it, 92 Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, wanted to shift the focus of the holidays towards the idea of giving more, rather than the ever-increasing stress and consumerism that often takes over during this time of year. The movement is intended to create an international day of charity and giving to start the holiday season off on a more positive note. Popularity for this idea has risen over the years, establishing it as an annual tradition for many. With this positive spirit, it can be a good idea to think about which charity you might consider supporting! If you haven't found an organization to help celebrate this movement, we hope that Carolina for The Kids might catch your eye. The money we receive goes to the families of patients at UNC Children’s. Whether your heart resides with our organization or another, don’t miss out on embracing the spirit of giving during the most wonderful time of the year! We’re celebrating Giving Tuesday by giving back to the patients and families at the local children’s hospital. Each Tuesday night, we serve meals in the hospital in our Parent’s Night Out program so that families don’t have to leave their child’s bedside to eat dinner - and Giving Tuesday is no exception. This just goes to show there’s more ways to give back than simply donating cash. The spirit of Giving Tuesday is all about giving back to the community, no matter where that is or how you do it. All that matters is that you’re making the world a little bit brighter in whatever way you can, and that’s what the holiday season is really all about. Madeline Leung is a member of the Public Relations Committee. Not many of us can say we’ve ever had to worry about where we would be getting our next meal from. Of course, we constantly hear about being grateful for what we have in life, but if you take a moment to really think about it, it can be shocking. As a college student, not only do I get a quality education and have supportive friends/family, but I also don’t have to worry about obtaining basic necessities to stay in good health – like food, shelter, water, etc. For patients and families at UNC Children’s, it’s a different story. They don’t get to have the luxuries some of us do, for they are burdened with hospitalization.
On Tuesday, I attended my very first Parents’ Night Out (PNO) with Carolina for the Kids. I helped serve and deliver meals to the families of patients in the children’s hospital, working with other CFTK volunteers. For many of these families, the weight of their child’s medical aid is enough to worry about, emotionally and financially. My visit to N.C. Children’s Hospital opened my eyes to the complication’s families face beyond just the medical bills. Some of these parents may not even have the time to go get a meal for themselves, for they don’t want to leave their child alone or don’t have the time to pick one up. Not only that, but buying meals can add up quickly in terms of cost. Carolina for the Kids aims to help these families and patients in ways that insurance cannot. One way we can do this is by serving free meals to these families every week. It takes one more weight off the shoulders of these families and allows them to focus more on the wellness of their child, not how they will be getting their next meal. CFTK does many amazing projects and PNO is just one of them. My time volunteering on Tuesday was extremely rewarding and I would recommend anyone to do PNO if given the chance. These families were so grateful to be able to come in and be served a meal, or even to receive one at their door. It’s one thing to be a part of the organization behind the scenes, but it is truly a whole other experience to see who you are helping firsthand. If you’re interested in becoming more involved in the work CFTK does, please visit http://www.carolinaftk.org/our-work.html to learn more! 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. 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. |
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