Make-a-wish fundraising

Ever since our lovely party thrown by Make-aWish Foundation last year, we've been thinking of how we could pay it forward, so hubby and I signed up as volunteers this year, so that we could also help make another child's wish come true.

Our first project as volunteers was to raise funds, so we did it at the NATAS travel fair this year. I must admit it wasn't easy (not that i thought it would be) as unlike previous fundraising efforts where we could go around with a tin on our own, put on our thick-skins and solicit, this time, we had our preschooler with us and we were very conscious of what we did and said and how we explained things. So, with our bag of goodies and donation bags (each donation bag carried Maeve's face, how cool is that!), we walked round the entire fair, with a smile on our faces and hope in our hearts. We had some wonderful ladies who not only donated, also stopped to chat with Maeve and wished her well and that helped us continue despite a million rejections.

Would you like to donate? These funds help grant wishes to very sick children.

No.

That's ok, have a good day.

Would you like to make a difference to the life of critically ill children?

No.

Would you..

No.

Mummy, why don't they want to help sick children?

Mummy, if they can spend money on holidays? why can't they give a little to help children like me? Mummy, why don't they care?

Mummy, why do you say thank you when they didn't donate?

Mummy, uncles are not very nice.

I must admit it was harder answering Maeve's questions than it was dealing with rejection. I knew we will be rejected most of the time, that's just how it is with singaporeans, but I forgot to prepare answers for the above questions and my answers were pretty lame.

Honey, they DO want to help, just not yet.

Darling, maybe they've donated to something else already.

Sweetie, many uncles are hard of hearing, so they didn't hear us when we asked for donations. Aunties have better ears.

All in all however, it was a great experience as my little one had to walk around for 6 hrs without being carried, learn to ask for donations, handle rejection, interact with other volunteers and catch some great cultural performances from all over the world. One snag though: (while watching the Brazillian dancers) mummy, why are they dancing in their panties and bras? I can see all their bum bums!

Now, that's another lesson in itself!