Planning Stella's Dream Day After receiving Stella's Dream Day packet, we saw that she wanted her day to consist of go-karts and a spa day. Our first task was to decide where the best place to go-kart would be. We began researching and came across Rascal's Fun Zone. We called the place and explained our situation to them. They asked for a little more details, so we sent a project proposal to them via email. They responded graciously with a 12-attraction family ticket and 15 game tokens. They will be sending the package, along with a semi-personalized letter for Stella, to us in the mail soon. We then began planning a spa day for her. We googled fun spa places for younger girls, and we found The Pink Party Palace. We called the spa but nobody answered, so we left a message. We are now waiting to hear back from the company. Our project proposal that we sent to the Rascal Fun Zone's manager Planning Josh's Dream Day In Josh's Dream Day packet he stated that he wanted his day to be spent at either King's Island or Great Wolf Lodge. We thought Great Wolf Lodge would be the best option for him. We contacted the resource teacher that nominated him because we want more information on why he was chosen. We thought if we were going to send a project proposal to the owners, we should have valid and convincing information on why they should help us give Josh his Dream Day. We are currently waiting to hear back from the resource teacher. When she responds we will send our project proposal to Great Wolf Lodge! Planning Hunter's Dream Day Our next student to be nominated is Hunter. Hunter is hoping to spend his Dream Day at an arcade and also incorporate airplanes. Given this information, we began brainstorming ideas for an arcade. Students in this class last year took a few Dream Day kids to the Main Event Entertainment, which is a fun game place. We decided this would be a great place for Hunter too. We constructed a project proposal for Hunter and sent it to the owner of the Main Event Entertainment. We are now waiting to hear back from her. We then started thinking of ideas for a fun day with airplanes. My older brother is currently in an aviation program, so I asked him for some ideas. He mentioned a tour of Vincennes University, a trip in the hangars, a look at the big jet, and a fly in the simulator would be an exciting day for Hunter. I then received the email of the chief at Vincennes and sent a project proposal to her. She quickly responded and seemed excited about the idea, but she has a couple questions to ask. We then scheduled a time to talk to her on the phone. This is the project proposal that we sent to Vincennes University
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Student Nominations The next step in our Dream Day project was to contact the counselor at the elementary school. We contacted her to see if she had any more students to nominate for a Dream Day. We also messaged some teachers at the junior high. We finally received our first student nomination of the semester! Her name is Stella, and she attends the elementary school. After receiving the email about a new nomination, we quickly printed out a Dream Day packet to send home with the young girl. We then took the packet to her school so she could fill out the questionnaire and tell us what she wanted her Dream Day to look like. A couple days later we received an email with another student nomination! We were excited about this new nomination because this is the first student from the junior high. We followed the same process that we did with Stella. We printed off a Dream Day packet and dropped it off at the school. We now just have to wait for the students to return the packets so we can begin planning their fun day! This is the email sent to the counselor at the elementary school.
Contacting the Schools The new semester has started, and we're eager to start our Dream Day project back up. We wanted to give other schools and students a chance to participate in a Dream Day, so we contacted the junior high in our district. The teacher we contacted was excited about our project, but all of her students received a Dream Day last year. She then passed our Dream Day idea onto other teachers who would be willing to participate. However a week has passed, and we haven't received any email that the teachers are interested. We then decided to send a follow-up email to the new teachers and asked if they had any student nominations. We are now patiently waiting to hear back from the teachers. This is the follow-up email we sent to the teachers at the junior high regarding our Dream Day project.
Clair and Christian with their Dream Day basket! Presenting Claire and Christian's Basket After getting word that Claire and Christian's principal wanted us to come back to deliver the basket to them personally, we quickly scheduled a time to do so. We finally got the chance to go to the elementary and deliver their basket. Their reaction was priceless, and I am super glad that I got to be a part of this experience! Delivering Bexleigh's Basket With a busy schedule and a new member added to the family, we had trouble scheduling a time to deliver Bexleigh's basket. After some planning and a few text messages, we found a time to meet her mom. Bexleigh was unable to come with her mom to pick up the basket, but I know she would be very excited about the gift. Bexleigh's Dream Day will take place this January at Disney on Ice, and I can't wait to hear how it goes! Eli and Gavin's Dream Day This has been our quickest Dream Day to set up! Eli and Gavin's mother mentioned that Gavin's birthday was on November 24 and wanted their Dream Day to be on that day. After contacting Zip City and hearing that they would provide us with two free two-hour passes, I drove to Zip City to pick the tickets up. We successfully received the tickets and next tried to find a limousine company that would provide us with a free or discounted ride. We contacted Aadvanced Limousines, but they did not get back to us in time for their Dream Day. We were saddened that we weren't able to give Eli and Gavin a limousine ride. We also had to quickly make a basket for them. Because this Dream Day was a little rushed, I had to go to the store the morning of their Dream Day to pick up supplies for the basket. I got candy, a gift card, picture frame to capture a moment from their day, and a card with a note to put in their basket! Haley and I met with the family soon after the basket was assembled. The kids seemed really excited about the basket and their trip to Zip City! Planning Zander's Dream Day
Our next task was to contact the elementary schools to see if they had any more student nominations. After a couple of days, we heard back from one of the principals! Our next student was named Zander, and he wanted a Dream Day to Sky Zone. We called the trampoline company and explained our situation to them and asked if they could provide us with a free or discounted ticket. They were unfortunately unable to donate free or discounted tickets, so we had the idea of seeing if we could change his Dream Day to Zip City. Zander was onboard with the idea of going to Zip City instead. We then contacted Zip City and asked if they could donate a free ticket. They were gracious enough to provide the ticket, and we picked it up that night! Our next mission was to assemble his Dream Day basket and deliver it to him. In his basket we included sour patch kids, a picture frame, a note from us, a gift card, and the Zip City ticket. Zander was excited to see his basket and looking forward to his trip to Zip City! Presenting Claire and Christian's Basket Because one of the children became ill, we were unable to give them their basket. The time we were planning on presenting them with the basket was around Halloween, so we had a spooky theme. Because we were giving them the basket on a later date, we decided to change the theme of the basket. We also had to plan a new day to give them the basket. We contacted their elementary school principal and delivered their basket earlier this week. We then received an email from the principal asking if we could come back and present the basket directly to them. We are now in the process of scheduling a time in which we could meet the children. Finishing Bexleigh's Dream Day Due to the new baby, we decided to change Bexleigh's Dream Day to an exciting day at Disney on Ice. The tickets came in the mail a few weeks ago and we wrote her a card sending her best wishes on their trip. We put together Bexleigh's basket with all of her favorite things. The basket includes a Frozen coloring book and stickers, Frozen socks, the tickets, a picture frame, and a box of M&Ms. We are in contact with her mom to schedule when we can present the basket to her. I am looking forward to seeing her reaction! After the meeting, we will finally have completed our second Dream Day. Planning Eli and Gavin's Dream Day
We were eager to start our third Dream Day after receiving these nominations from Sugar Creek students, Eli and Cade. The Dream Day packets were sent to home with the boys to find out what they were looking for in their perfect days and a few of their favorite things. The boys sent back their packets to us within days, which was very helpful. Their perfect day entails a limousine ride to Zip City. We quickly got to work on making contact with Zip City, who are sending us two free two-hour passes. After confirming the tickets from Zip City, we began searching for a limousine company that will provide us with a discounted or free ride. Aadvanced Limousines was our first choice so we prompted a proposal to email them, but we are still waiting on them to respond. Finishing Claire and Christian's Dream Day Claire and Christian's Dream Day is finally coming together! We received the zoo tickets in the mail earlier this week for the family to attend soon. After brainstorming some fun items, we decided to put a picture frame, their favorite candies, a gift card, zoo tickets, and a written card from us in their Dream Day basket. We also gave the basket a spooky theme by using a cauldron and lining it with fake spiderwebs. We were planning to meet with the family earlier this week to present our basket, but one of the kids became ill. We are now in the process of rescheduling our meeting with them. After the meeting, we will have completed our first Dream Day! Changing Bexleigh's Dream Day
We organized a meeting with Bexleigh and her mom to get to know her a little better and ask about her interests. She mentioned how much she liked Frozen! For her Dream Day, she informed us that a trip to the Children's Museum would be enjoyable. Her mom told us how many tickets they would need and which day would work best for their family. During the meeting her mother also told us she was due with a baby in the following week. We decided to change Bexleigh's Dream Day because we saw how excited she was about Frozen, and we wanted to push her Dream Day back a couple months in order to allow time for their family to adjust and care for their new baby. Because of these factors, we decided to purchase three tickets for Disney on Ice in January. We went to Ticketmaster to buy the tickets, and they came in the mail last night. My group also began planning what items to put in Bexleigh's presentation basket which we will present in the coming weeks. This basket includes a Frozen coloring book, picture frame, show tickets, written card from us, her favorite candy, and a gift card. Planning Christian & Claire's Dream Day After presenting our ideas and laying a foundation down for our project, we were eager to begin planning our first Dream Day! Christian and Claire were the first students to give their Dream Day packets back to us. They both requested to visit the Indianapolis Zoo. In order to make their dream come true, we first called the zoo and asked if they could provide us with discounted tickets. They told us to email them with a project proposal telling them more about the students. After a couple days of waiting, the zoo called us back and told us they would provide six tickets, a parking pass, and tickets for rides. While we were waiting to hear back from the zoo, we began thinking of what we wanted to put in their gift basket. We would present this basket to the students the day of their Dream Day and include a gift card, candy, a note from us, and a picture frame. Planning Bexleigh's Dream Day
Our second student to return their Dream Day packet was Bexleigh. She is a pre-schooler who wanted to spend her day at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We contacted the museum to see if they would provide discounted tickets, but they were unable to do so. Because of this, we decided to use some of the money from our grant that we received earlier this year. The grant that we have is from the company Inspire. We first began planning her day by contacting her mom and scheduling a day to meet with her. We wanted to do this so we could fill her in on our ideas and learn more about Bexleigh. We also wanted to ask her mom how many tickets she would want and what day would work best for her. After meeting with Bexleigh and her mom, we plan on going to the store to purchase candy and a gift card for her basket. What it is Dream Day is a project that consists of providing a unique experience to someone who could benefit from a break in everyday life. It is a day for selected students to choose a fun activity to do in central Indiana. It is an opportunity to bring happiness and joy into someone's life. My group has decided to work with the elementary students because we are all interested in working with younger kids. I chose to participate in this project because I want to brighten someone's day and see their face light up as their "dream" comes to life. This project is important to me because I strive to shed light in the community and provide a little bit of hope in today's society. My group and I hope to provide eight dream days to eight elementary students. It will require a lot of planning, but we are up for the challenge. Getting Started In order to get started on this project, my group and I first had to create a presentation that included our goals, resources, and plan. After this was done, we began working on our Dream Day packets. These consisted of information, questions, and past projects, and it was created to send out to the nominated Dream Day students. Now that we have all of our materials, we were ready to give an informal pitch to our class. This allowed us to present our project and receive feedback from our peers. After adjusting our powerpoint a little bit, we were ready to present our project to the administrators and principals. We were able to do this through Pitch Day. This day allowed our class to share our project ideas with people who could help our ideas come to life. After presenting and getting the elementary principals on board with our idea, we were ready to take the next step. Sending Emails The next step in our process involved sending emails to teachers and receiving student nominations. We first sent out an email to the elementary resource teachers informing them about our project. However, they already knew some information because they attended the Pitch Day presentation. The email's main purpose was to ask the elementary teachers to send in their student nominations. In order to do this, the staff would have to sit down and brainstorm what students would benefit from this experience the most. After they have decided, we would ask them to email us the child's name and their parent contact information. We wanted their parent's email so we could inform them about our idea and the opportunity their child was about to receive. We also decided to send our personal information in the email in case the parents had questions or concerns regarding the project. |
AuthorMy name is Kaylin Casner, and I am in a service learning class at New Palestine High School. The goal of this class is to give back to our community and complete service projects. Archives
January 2020
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