Funding a Sense of Community

Funding a Sense of Community

Words by Guest Writer Hannah Moore

Since having children I have found myself craving a greater sense of community in my life.
 
I often think of the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” as I believe we all need support, guidance and assistance from our community when it comes to parenting. 
 
So this year to quench my thirst for community, I decided to join the Governing Committee at my children’s childcare centre (much to my husband’s surprise - as I have never been one to join committees in the past).
 
Child carers and teachers play a huge part in these ‘villages’ – helping raise our children on a daily basis and I really feel there is no better way of showing gratitude than giving back. In perfect alignment, I’ve been delegated to the fundraising team.
 
Fundraising initiatives are extremely important in allowing education providers to offer children those extra items needed to enhance their learning experiences.
 
My Name Label Australia has been successfully helping many childcare centres, preschools and schools raise extra funds for many years with their fundraising system whereby 15% of the value of all orders placed by the group (using their unique code) is returned to them as fundraising income.
 
Some of the most successful fundraising groups at My Name Label have been Wilderness School in Adelaide, Australia and The French Australian Preschool in the ACT, Australia.
 
Both have been fundraising with My Name Label Australia continuously for many years (10 and 5 years respectively), promoting the initiative in various ways such as brochures in their uniform shop and newsletters.
 
Jenni Guest from the Wilderness School P&F explains how this fundraiser has been so successful and how the school has benefited:

“My Name Label has been a 10 year standing affiliate with Wilderness School. The brand is publicised in our Parent handbooks and uniform shop. My Name Label provides an easily accessible and very efficient service, which is an essential to school life. And yes, even in my household, the young adult children may still receive labels from me to identify their belongings! Over the years their fundraising money has contributed to building developments, terraced meeting areas, sound systems for the school, the overwhelmingly wonderful Raising Amazing Girls lecture series and the new Interactive play space for our Lower Junior school girls, which has helped the entire Wilderness School community including our girls (ELC to year 12), teachers, support staff, parents and caregivers. Thank you My Name Label.” 

“With 128 children enrolled in our Preschool, it is really important that every item belonging to a child be properly labelled. Since joining “My Name Label” and systematically promoting it with our families, we have been able to considerably reduce the number of items that find their way to our lost property box at the end of each term. The fact that our Preschool also benefits financially is the icing on the cake! We actually use the voucher donated by My Name Label as a prize to be won at our Trivia Night - it is always a very popular item!”