Sarah Simko
Karis Barret and Sarah Simko collectively raised $1,646 in their 50:50 campaigns. Here is what they had to say about how they ran successful campaigns and their experience on their trips!
Why did you decide to do a 50:50 campaign?
Karis: To make a difference , even a little difference and try and raise as much money as I could. It also helped with trip fare, which was nice.
Sarah: That was the same way that I found out about it. I found out about it right after I signed up to go on the trip to Peru. And I thought it was a really great way to help contribute to MEDLIFE and the clinics financially.
Karis: I signed up last minute, so about two weeks. I sent it out to friends and family and asked them to send it to there friends and managed to have some people donate. If I had started earlier, it would have been easier to get more money but I did what I could with the time I had.
Karis Barrett
Sarah: I also signed up for the trip last minute. It took about two weeks to raise the money. I wrote support emails and sent them out to family and friends letting them know about the trip and how their money can make an impact on the people I would be working with in Peru.
What obstacles did you overcome fundraising?
Karis: I’m from Canada, so lots of people didn’t realize it was going to be in American dollars. I also had a lot of family members not know how to use paypal. Some times they just got another family member to send money over paypal and gave them cash. Also, people just gave a little bit less because of the exchange rate, which is terrible right now.
Sarah: The paypal issue was my only obstacle. That was an issue for some family members.
Karis: Especially the older ones, they just wanted to put in a credit card. What’s this paypal thing?
Sarah: They would call and ask, “How does it work? Can I just not do that, can I just send you money?” … No!
How do you feel about the money you raised and the impact you made?
Sarah: The most memorable part of the trip was being able work one on one with people. And just seeing how loving and grateful they were towards us just made me want to do this more and I felt really good that I was able to raise some money to contribute to the healthcare they needed.
Karis: The most memorable part for me was seeing how grateful everyone was. And seeing how much it was needed just really reinforced why we are doing this. And made me feel better about raising the money that I did and helping buy supplies.
What would you do differently next time?
Karis: Start earlier!
Sarah: Start earlier than I did and send it to more people!
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