So last night after youth group, Girl Ninja took a bunch of her high school girls Flocking. What’s flocking you ask? Well, let me tell you. We take about 25 of those stupid Flamingo Yard Ornaments (the ones that old people tend to have in front of their mobile homes) and put them in an unsuspecting victim’s front yard. We leave a sign saying “You’ve been flocked by Young Life. For $25 we will remove the Flamingos from your yard or for $50 you can tell us who to flock next.” It’s a clever and fun way to raise financial support for our kids to go to camp this summer, not to mention the victims seem to really enjoy being able to “flock” their friends.
This summer, Girl Ninja and I will be responsible for taking 25 freshmen to summer camp so they can have the best week of their lives. It’s going to be epic. Unfortunately, an epic week isn’t cheap. Many of our Young Life kids come from families that can pay the full camp fee, but some don’t. Girl Ninja and I have taken it upon ourselves to help these kids fundraise, flocking being one example.
While car washes are fun and all, let’s get real, they aren’t huge money makers. On a good day we could maybe make $500 at a car wash. Divide that up over the 15 or so kids working it, and suddenly each kid is only walking away with $33 towards their camp fee. Minimal return on investment, and a crappy hourly wage if each kid is there for about 5 hours.
That said, I am a big believer in making these kids work hard to raise money, not just going door to door asking for a handout. That’s why Girl Ninja and I have reached out to our parents and some other close friends, asking them if they would like to “Hire a few high school kids for a day.”
Girl Ninja’s parents put in an order for about four guys to come help build a fence they’ve been meaning to put in. My parents are hiring a group of boys/girls to refinish their basement (rip out the carpet and paint all of the walls). Another local community member has a slew of yard work he doesn’t want to do, and is pumped to hire six or so kids for a days work of manual labor. These type of projects pay handsomely and will go a long way in helping the kids in need to pay their way to camp.
But now I need your help (no I’m not asking you to give me money). Aside from flocking and service projects, we really are scratching our heads on ways to help these kids make more money. We will go the car wash route and selling crappy candy bars if need be, but I’d like to be much more creative and think outside the box.
Help a Ninja out! What other ways can we raise funds for these kids without just being like “Yo, can we have some money?” Have you seen any cool fundraising tactics? If you got flocked would you be pissed?
p.s. in case you are wondering, the bottom of the note indicates a flocking victim can simply give us a call and we will remove them for free if they don’t feel like participating. We typically only flock people we know or are already active in supporting Young Life. Not like we just pick random people who might shoot us in the face for stepping foot on their property.
p.p.s. here is a picture of me being blobbed at young life camp when I was in high school. 
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