Workshop Handbook
By joining with ChariTotes, you and your participants are directly benefiting Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Benefits Pediatric Cancer Foundation
Dear ChariTotes Ambassador, Hi, I m Taylor. First, I want to thank you so much for joining our team. By organizing a ChariTotes event, you and your participants are directly benefiting Pediatric Cancer Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for pediatric cancers. I started ChariTotes after visiting a hospital in my hometown. There were sick kids there who really needed their spirits lifted. I saw how happy it made them when they got a chance to do something simple and creative like coloring. I got together with some friends and helpers and we decorated bags and filled them with art supplies and I delivered them to the hospital. The first time we did it we did about 100 bags. The next time it was 200. Then 400. The truth is, the more bags you do, the better! Make this event your own, be yourself and most importantly have a ton of fun! Creatively yours, Founder/ President ChariTotes
Welcome to Team ChariTotes! This guide is designed to maximize the results and the fun! of your event. By following these tips and suggestions, you will be on your way to a colorfully successful day!
Let s get started! Event Essentials Checklist: 1. Choose a day, time and location for the event 2. Send out a Save the Date Email 3. Contact your local Pediatric Cancer Unit to determine approximately how may bags you will need, and make arrangements to drop the bags off. 4. Visit www.charitotes.com to order the number of Designa-Bag Party Packs you need for your event. The Design-a- Bag Party Packs come with 12 individual Design-a-Bag kits that include white canvas bags, markers, stencils and stickers. 5. Get enough unlined paper for hand-written cards for kids in hospitals 6. Make a presentation board including PCF facts 7. Buy enough ribbon to tie final gift packages together Tip: Hospitals have certain regulations/restrictions. Get approval from hospitals before including any additional items.
PREP STEP 1: Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears! Everyone in your email address book, all of your Facebook/ Google+ or other service friends basically anyone and everyone you know should receive a Save the Date email. It s best to send this out 2-3 weeks ahead of the event so that folks can plan to attend. Make sure to include important facts such as location, day and time of the event and info on PCF. It s helpful to text and message reminders to your friends cells and ichat accounts. For many people these are the best ways to keep in touch. Post event info on your Facebook page. Send out Tweets to your Twitter followers. Include info on PCF in all of your messages. People are more likely to participate if they know more about the great cause they ll be helping!
Sample Event Letter DEAR [Friend, Family member, etc.] On [date] I will be gathering some friends at [location] for a fun day of designing and decorating canvas tote bags to benefit a charity called Pediatric Cancer Foundation. PCF is an amazing non-profit charity that raises money to help with research, state-of-the-art equipment, and patient care for world-renowned doctors at local hospitals. Maybe you know someone whose life was impacted by pediatric cancer. Maybe you want to help the more than 12,000 kids who are diagnosed with cancer every year in our country. Maybe you re someone who just likes the idea of having fun with your friends and helping fight pediatric cancer while doing it. Whatever your reason for joining I want you in! Together we re going to brighten the day of some really great kids who are in a really challenging place. Thanks! [Your name] This letter is just a sample and of course you can change it up any way you like to make it more your own. But it is a good idea to give folks an idea of what PCF is all about.
PREP STEP 2: Did You Know...? Read through the entire ChariTotes Handbook, including (especially!) the PCF Fact Sheet. The more you know about ChariTotes and PCF the more you can inform your friends and answer any questions they might have. Change the scripts we ve included to fit your specific event and your personal style. This is your day! Make it work for you! Confirm with your local Pediatric Cancer Unit that you will be coming by with gift packages for their patients. Busy hospitals will appreciate the reminder. Roam around on the ChariTotes website, www.charitotes.com. There is information there that you can use to answer questions from younger attendees about cancer and its treatment.
PREP STEP 3: Ready For Your Close-up? Make preparations to document your event. Have a sign-in sheet or book ready for everyone to sign when they arrive. Have a camera or two ready for taking pictures maybe even some video during the event. Prepare some refreshments. Make plans ahead of time for cleanup. Determine how you will deliver gifts to the kids in the hospital after your event and who will be making the delivery. If you are planning to hold your event outdoors, have an indoor backup plan! Make sure that you have all necessary supplies! The ChariTotes Kit contains: Notebooks Crayons Stickers These are the gift items that will be tied up with ribbon, put inside the decorated tote bags, and delivered to your local pediatric cancer unit. Tote bags Stencils Fabric markers These are the items that will be used to decorate the bags.
Items that are not included: 8.5 x 11 unlined paper for Get Well Cards Markers or Colored Pencils to make Get Well Cards Glue dots for keeping gift items in place Ribbon for tying gift items together Tip: Pre-cut the ribbon so that you don t have to use scissors at the event. - ribbon should be cut to approximately 30 inches - try one to make sure of the length.
The Day of Your Event: say this... 1) Getting Started: Ambassadors: After everyone has signed your sign-in sheet and settles in, you re ready to begin the event. Welcome everyone and thank them for coming. As you place a ChariTotes Kit before each participant you can say: First you ll decorate the canvas tote bag in your kit using the stencils and markers inside. Then you ll write a note to a child on the unlined paper. But before you get started, we will collect all the other items inside the kit. Those are a gift for the child in the hospital. Later, those will be wrapped in the provided ribbon and given to the child along with the tote bags and hand-written notes. Today s event benefits the Pediatric Cancer Foundation. The PCF is an organization that raises money for research, state of the art equipment for doctors and hospitals, and parent/patient care for families battling childhood cancer. Now, go ahead and open your ChariTotes kits! Tip: Take lots of pictures! Post some pictures from your event on the ChariTotes Facebook page, and we ll send you a ChariTotes Ambassador t-shirt!
2) Decorating: Ambassadors: Once the above items have been collected and set aside, you may tell your group to begin decorating their bags and writing their notes! Guide them in writing their notes with the following: The message on your tote bag should be inspirational. Be creative and positive. Here are some examples of messages others have written: Get well soon! Explore, Dream, Inspire! Live, Laugh, Love! All You Need Is Love! Laughter Is The Best Medicine! You Are The Best! You re a Firework! We Love You! Suggestion: You may want to make a Board of Sample Messages and Cards. Tip: Go through the cards after they are filledin just to make sure that what is written is appropriate for the kids receiving them.
and this... 3) Finishing Touches: Ambassadors: When everyone has finished decorating their bags and writing their notes guide them in putting on the finishing touches with the following: Great work, everybody! The kids are going to love these beautiful bags and I really like the notes you ve written, too! Let s put the finishing touches on the packages. I ll hand out the gift items and show you how to tie them up. After that you ll insert your note under the ribbon and stuff the entire package into your tote bag. Tip: We found that assembly of the gifts works best if one table is decorating bags and another table is putting the gifts together. 4) Goodbyes: Ambassadors: When everyone has put the finishing touches on their packages, it s time to clean up and thank everyone for coming. What you say is up to you, but be sure to include the following: this too! Thank you all so much for coming today. Your inspiring and creative work today will help brighten the day of some great kids and directly benefit the PCF. If you want to help more, you can organize your own ChariTotes event. If you re interested, I can help you do that. Just see me after. Thanks again!
Together we re going to brighten the day of some really great kids who are in a really challenging place. Founder/ President ChariTotes Questions /comments? Email us at workshop@charitotes.com