Travel Night

This is a great way to bring together your friends, colleagues, neighbors and acquaintances that like to travel. This can be singles or couples party. You can send an evite with a link to the Hungry Duckling, but limit the amount of people to about 15 max. Make it clear that this is a participatory fund raiser with good food, sharing and fun games, needing team players so people do not come late or leave early. Ask everyone to bring their favorite international dish and a mystery object from their travels. You as the host are responsible for plates, cutlery, bread and drinks. If you are serving wine you might want to ask a local winery or merchant to donate a few bottles for the cause. Explain in the invitation that this will be a fund raiser for The Hungry Duckling and ask people for a suggested donation (for example $50.00 per person, $100 per couple)

As people arrive set up a basket next to the drinks for donations. If people are arriving late send the basket around the table again when you sit down to eat. You should also pass out Favorite Places worksheet and a pen or a pencil upon arrival. Some couples will want to work together and some on their own. This is a lively activity with people tending to discuss with their neighbors where have they been or where are they planing to go.

After everyone has settled and finished their assignment you can welcome them and thank them for participating. If guests do not all know each other this is a good time for introductions. Let each person share their top 3 in each category (Favorite Visited Places and Places to See Before I Die). Time to share the appetizers and have a refill of drinks. Then you can play the Mystery Object game.  Each person/couple holds their mystery object and people in the group try to guess where it is from and what it was used for. Then the owner/s tell when, where and how they acquired it.

Serve dinner. This can be sit down or buffet style, paper plates or fine china-your choice. After dinner play the Invent a Country game. Break up people in 3-4 teams, preferably separating spouses. Give people a limit on time (20 minutes should be about enough). Sometimes people are reluctant to start the group activity but soon you will hear a lively discussion in groups and lots of laughter as people come up with crazy ideas. When the time is up everyone comes back together and each group reports on their country. It is amazing how creative and funny people are.

This is a very exciting and fun filled party so allocate enough time. Often people who can not attend will still send you a check in the mail.

 

Big Sister Saturday 

(Great for kids!)

 Invite a few of your best girlfriends to help you plan and work with you. You will plan a fun afternoon for a crowd of younger girls that would love to spend time with older girls. You can plan to do hair wraps or braids, nail polish, temporary tattoos or face painting, baking and decorating cookies, playing games, learning a new dance or whatever you enjoy. It works best if you have a neighbor, friend or a younger sister who is willing to host this event at her house. She can send invitations to the girls in her class, her girls scout troop or just her best friends. It works great when high school girls spend time with middle school girls. The parents make a donation that should be similar to the amount of money they would pay for babysitting, but of course it will be a lot more fun for the girls. Do let the girls and their parents know that you are volunteering your time and direct them to the Hungry Duckling for more information on the cause you are supporting.

Ideally you would like to have about 10 little sisters with about 4 big sisters to set up different activity stations so everyone is kept busy. If the afternoon is long you can plan to watch a movie and eat the baked goodies. If you charge $10.00 per hour and you have 10 girls for 5 hours you will fund raise $500 in an afternoon. You might have to deduct a bit of money for your supplies, but you probably have a lot of nail polish and hair ties lying around the house.

A variation of this fund raiser can be an early evening  Pajama Party for the younger kids (while their parents are free to go to the movies or dinner) or a Tea Party where the girls can bring their dolls along. 

Only boys at your house? We bet you could do great with an afternoon of sports for the younger brothers crowd. Go to the local park or someone's backyard and organize some soccer or baseball clinics, if you and your friends are good at sports. If you are a scout you and your buddies could take a younger troop and work with them on a badge, perhaps. We only have girls at our house, so let us know if you come up with a great boy fund raising concept!

At any rate send us a word about how it went and we will put your name and your report on the website if you so desire and your parents agree.