Our mall allowed us to put a Christmas tree up in
Center Court. For each $5.00 donation, we would illuminate a light for
your pet --- a red one for "in honor of" and a white one "in memory
of". We asked for a picture of the pet and would hang it with a red or
white ribbon. We had to put up an-other Christmas Tree because the
first one because too full of pictures. We did not worry about the
fact that we had 100 white lights on a tree, but 150 memorial pictures
---- you can't even the two out. We found that the public did not even
pay attention to that. They were too busy looking at the pictures.
On the weekend, my mother took her Golden Retriever, Chelsea, to the
mall. She was dressed as Santa, complete with bells on her toes and a
Santa Hat. The kids AND adults loved it. Of course, we had the fish
bowl out and would average $150.00 in donations a night. Also, we took
thick foam board and put them on wreath stands. We had a red board for
the honored pets and a white board for a memorialized pets. We listed
their names on each board. We noticed that people liked to look at the
names the try to find the picture on the tree. We were glad we wrote
the names on the back. We earned over $3,000 from the tree and fish
bowl. It was a so fun.. THIS IS IMPORTANT! We did not have someone at
the tree at all times. The only time someone was at the tree was on
Friday and Saturday night when we took Chelsea out there. Twice a
week, I went out there to hang pictures and write names on the boards.
The public never paid attention to me, but take a dog out there and
they flock around and dump money in the fish bowl. We had a stand out
front of the tree explaining what it was for. We kept forms in that
stand for people to fill out. They would simply put their name, the
name of the pet, was it in Memory or Honor of, etc. Then they would
send it to the address at the bottom (my house). The BIG BIG money
maker on this was something we almost did not do. We told people that
if they wanted to buy a light in honor or memory of someone else's
pet, we would send that person a card. Many people made donations like
that for Christmas Presents. When the person received a card, they
turned around and made a donation either for their pet or someone
else's. This brought out a lot of emotion in some people. I saw
several people who made a donation in memory of their pet just break
down and cry when they saw the picture on the tree. We thought it
would be necessary to have someone at the tree at all times, but we
knew we could not do it. Turned out, we did not need anyone there
except on weekend nights when the mall was really crowded. We also got
the newspaper to print the form to fill out as a donation to us. We
got a good response from that. Also, the local weatherman (a REAL
popular guy) came out and did the weather from our trees twice. There
was a huge response after that.
We have included a number of do-it-yourself fundraising ideas in this
section such as a Pet Remembrance Tree that offer a break from
traditional product sales. They were developed by groups just like
yours in an attempt have a little fun with their fundraiser. Some of
them are tried and true while others show a lot of creativity ... and
even wackiness in some cases. All of them are obviously not
appropriate for every group, but sometimes, with only a little
modification, your might find some fund raising ideas that are perfect
for your group. If you have an idea for a do-it-yourself fund raiser you
are willing to share with others, please send it to us via email at .
Include anything
and everything you would want to know if you were hearing the idea for
the first time.
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Include anything
and everything you would want to know if you were hearing the idea for
the first time.