What Have I Gotten Myself Into?!

My set-up while sorting

Dirty Hands :/ 

After collecting all of the Rice Bowls it was time to break them open! Boy was that a task...(nice if you needed to get a little bit of anger out though!) So at the beginning of this week I had some friends at school helping me break open the bowls and sorting the change into quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, dollar bills, and the random Great Wolf Lodge or other coins from around the world (those won't exactly help but that's ok). I eventually brought them home and just had to sit down for a few hours to get it all done because it was hard to do it at school considering classes were always changing. At home I laid everything out and just went to town sorting the change. My dad helped me a little bit but for the most part I did it on my own. My hands turned black from sorting the money...no joke...money is disgusting. I even washed my hands several times in between sorting the change. This morning one of my dads friends that works at a bank said that he and people that he works with would love to count all of the money once they heard what it was for...so I dropped all of the money off this morning to be counted and they are going to be counting it in their spare time and would get the final count of how much there is back to me as soon as they can! I was very overwhelmed by all the money that was brought back and all that I did was sort it but that was very exciting! I can't wait to hear the grand total and will let everyone know as soon as I find out! :)

Bags of lots and lots of change all sorted out. 

Smashed Rice Bowls ready to be sorted

And Here They Are!

I collected all of the Rice Bowls form throughout the school this past Tuesday! :) I had some people help me go through the primary building and the the lower school to collect all of the bowls and we had a great turnout. I have been collecting them throughout the whole week just in case some forgot to bring them in on Tuesday. The number of Rice Bowls that were turned back in overwhelmed me remarkably and I was extremely happy! Two of our biggest papers as a senior, one being the Research Paper for our Senior Project, are do on December 10 so I have not counted all of the money from the bowls yet and next week once all of my stress is gone I can not wait to bust open the bowls and see what kind of turnout we have!  Thank you to all of OPS for helping with this project!  

It's That Time... :)

So as you can tell Rice Bowls are due back Tuesday December 7th! I made two posters to put up at the school and one to hold in the carpool line on Monday so that all the parents know that they are due just in case their children don't let them know ;)

To the left is a flyer that I made for the primary students and the lower school students. I counted them out according to how many were in each class and gave them to the ladies that put papers in the primary and lower school students Thursday folders. I only gave them to the younger children so that their parents would be aware and be able to help them 
get the Rice Bowl turned in. 

Capturing the Moment

This was a couple of weeks ago when students from Mrs. Patterson's class had filled up their Rice Bowls and couldn't wait for me to get them and they wanted to get another to fill up! Such sweet kids :) 

Video Time!!

This is just a video that is on RiceBowls.org but I thought it would be easier to access if I put it on here! So I hope that seeing this video will encourage everyone to continue filling up their bowls! Thanks :) 

Update

I collected some more Rice Bowls from students in Mrs. Patterson's class this week so that was extremely exciting to see how excited they were to give me their full bowls. This week has been fairly relaxing for working on Senior Project but when next week rolls around and we get our rough drafts back it's going to be stressful again reading all of the reviews but I know that it will help help us to get our papers where they need to be. I'm interested to see how next week goes.

Rough Draft

So the Rough Draft is done! Although it is a very very rough draft... I learned a lot from writing it. I ended up using Upward Sports as an example throughout my paper so I got to learn things that they do as a non-profit and that was really neat! I really enjoyed it. 

On a different note I have had several students from the lower school bringing in their Rice Bowls and ask for more so they keep on filling them up and it is awesome! I am loving their enthusiasm and it makes the project that much more exciting for me to take part in! 

Research Update

Research is coming along...it started off slow but then it all came rolling in! It has been really interesting to learn about different aspects of  for-profit and a not-for-profit organiztions. I have been able to learn about the processes of starting the different organizations and the differences in each. Also I have learned about the tax benefits of each and how each one of them handle money and where their money goes. The ways that both of the organizations work are very diverse but knowing what each one entails is crucial when starting an organization. I am very excited about where my research has gotten me and where it is going to take me.

Thesis...

Thesis:      Choosing to be a for-profit or a not-for-profit organization is a crucial part for when your are starting an organization; I believe that it is more beneficial to be a not-for-profit organization because there is no particular owner so therefore they should not be taxed, by not paying taxes it accelerates the growth of the mission and the organization, and all of the proceeds are poured back into the organization.

                                                           

This is my still a thesis that is a work in progress. I have been working on it but not sure what else needs to be done to finish it off!

On the other hand....I passed out Rice Bowls yesterday and today so now everyone at the school has received a Rice Bowl! I am so excited that everything is getting started! Johnny Ramintanin (the director for Rice Bowls) spoke at chapel and showed some pictures and I think that that got everyone really excited! As I passed out the Rice Bowls to a 4th grade classroom (I passed K4-5th grade Rice Bowls out myself and explained to them what they were) a little boy asked if they could put dollar bills in their bowls and told them "of course, whatever they could get to fit inside is great!" and he told me that he "has a 100 dollar bill that I has been saving and I think I'm going to put it in my Rice Bowl!" Even if that doesn't happen it is still awesome to hear responses like that! And with Mrs. Patterson's class I got to answer several questions and tell them all about senior project and what I was "passionate" about and was able to turn it into a teaching moment. Then before I left they all circled up and put their hands on me and we prayed before I left the room. It was remarkable!  I can't wait to continue on with my project!

Senior Retreat

We had our Senior Retreat this past weekend at Windy Gap and it was so much fun! I really enjoyed getting to spend time with all of the seniors and the teachers that attended. It was a great experience and fun getting the opportunity to bond with everyone. While we were there we got to make a video for the current juniors to tell them about our senior projects, research paper topics, and what the hardest part of the whole project will be so doing that and then getting to hear everyones was really fun! I'm excited to continue on the this journey with senior project and to see where it takes me next! 

How it all went!

The Fall Festival went great! I did not necessarily pass out a lot of flyers but I had a table set up and had several people to come by and ask me about Rice Bowls. I had so much fun describing to the students, parents, and teachers what I am going to be doing for my project and they were very excited as well.  Since then I have had not only high school students but lower school students as well asking me when they get a Rice Bowl. That is very reassuring to me because it reveals to me that they want a Rice Bowl and they are looking forward to getting to participate in them. 

Fall Festival

Tomorrow is the Fall Festival and I've got my flyers all done and and printed out and ready to be handed out tomorrow!  I'm really excited about spreading the word about the Rice Bowls and getting the flyers out to as many people as possible tomorrow. I'm going to try and set up a table with a few Rice Bowls just as visuals sitting on top of rice that I plan to spread on the table just to tie in with the idea of the Rice Bowls. I know that people some people may set down their flyer but they are really appealing to the eye so hopefully if one may be set down then another person will pick it up. I'm very excited about tomorrow night and hopefully I will get some positive responses from people! 

Small Details

So the Fall Festival at OPS is coming up, September 17. I would like to have a brochure or flyer of some sort to hand out to all of the families there to go ahead and get them aware of Rice Bowls and what they are and how they can get involved. I have all of my information needed to go on to whatever I pass out so now I just need to get those made! Once everyone is aware of what I am doing I am hoping that it will get them interested and that they will want to take part in Rice Bowls. I am very exciting about getting the ball rolling with my project and can't wait to see what happens next! 

Next Step

I had a meeting with the director of Rice Bowls this week and that went amazing! I was so excited to dream and think about all the possibilities that I have ahead with this project. We talked about making a brochure to hand out at the Fall Festival to give to the families to give them a "heads up" on Rice Bowls and then when the second term starts, to go ahead and pass the bowls out to each family at school. The direction that I am heading in right now is to pass out Rice Bowls twice, once in the second term of this this year and the next time in the spring of 2011. I know that it is sometimes hard for people to remember when to bring things back to the school so I thought about standing the carpool line with posters to remind parents and students to bring their Rice Bowls back in as well as putting posters and flyers up around the school as a friendly reminder! To prepare for my club, I would like to speak in chapel and let everyone know what my club will be about so that people will get interested in it. With TOMS, I still would like to use them as a part of my project but I would like to talk about them in the missions club. During the club I want to be able to teach them about mission opportunities that they have that are as simple as buying a pair of shoes. I'm very excited about the way things are turning out!

Starting Up

This is the first blog post of many to come! Senior year is probably going to fly by a lot faster than I am expecting and senior project is going to fly with it. For my project I'm hoping to put my focus on my passion of children and missions. I would like to work with TOMS Shoes and Rice Bowls for my senior project. I want to raise awareness about missions and the ways that we can help not only financially but also emotionally. With making this possible I would like to make a club at Oakbrook that would be a Missions club where I could inform the club members of all the mission opportunities that are available. I would like for each Oakbrook family to receive a Rice Bowl and have them fill them up to in the end be sent back to an orphanage to feed the children of that particular one. With the Missions club I would like to be able to inform the members of missions and ways that they can help. I would speak about TOMS, Rice Bowls, and Upward Sports Ministry and all the experiences that I personally have been able to take part in. I can't wait for the rest of this year to get going!