After Shawnee High School student council state charity officer Griffin Muli saw the school’s volleyball team raise $10,000 in just a single fundraiser, he wondered why student council wasn’t doing the same thing.
“With us throughout the year raising only $4,000, there was something we weren’t doing,” he said.
Muli made it his mission to have student council expand its efforts toward fundraising for the New Jersey Association of Student Councils’ state charity, a project the school works on each year.
In 2013–14, the state charity is The Hero Campaign for Designated Drivers, a program founded by the parents of John R. Elliott, an ensign in the Navy who was killed by a drunk driver.
“Their goal is to lower the number of DUIs in the state of New Jersey as well as across the country,” Muli said. “A lot has been involved with spreading the word about the charity, not only through our school, but through our community.”
By speaking about fundraising through word of mouth and a number of new events, the student council is making an impact on the school community that hasn’t been felt in quite some time.
Muli hit the ground running early this school year. He told his fellow council members that it was possible to raise a large amount of money, but it would take a lot of work.
“We have to have events,” Muli said to everyone. “We have to get involved.”
With that, Muli and student council began to brainstorm ways to double their fundraising efforts. The council added new events to its existing fundraisers and also came up with new ideas to raise money.
For example, there are collection boxes throughout the community that are being used to collect Hero Campaign donations. Muli said the boxes alone have brought in $100.
“That’s $100 we didn’t have last year,” he said.
Other small sales have helped bolster the students’ efforts as well. Student council sold “Be a Hero” wristbands that help raise money and awareness for the specific charity. Those sales brought in more than $1,000 for the Hero Campaign.
The fundraising efforts don’t just involve the students either. Muli spoke to the teachers at the first faculty meeting about the charity.
Eventually, this led to a teacher “shave-off” fundraiser where the teacher who raised the most money toward the Hero Campaign would have their hair shaved off.
With new fundraisers such as the wristbands sales and shave-off combined with popular existing events such as the school’s student-faculty basketball game in the fall, student council has raised $3,300 so far in 2013–14. It is nearly double the $1,700 they raised at the same time last year.
With student council continuing to add events, such as fundraisers at P.J. Whelihan’s and Pancheros Mexican Grill in the coming months, they will easily top the amount of donations they brought in the last few years.
“I’m really proud of how our school has rallied around our state charity this year,” Muli said.
