Thanksgiving Winners

Congratulations to our Thanksgiving contest winners, Twitter followers, 2doxies2, SLThrun3 and LoveMyVDub. Meet our Thanksgiving popcorn characters!

We hope that you and your family had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Follow Popcorn Palace on Twitter for other great contests and giveaways.

It's All About Execution!

With the busy season upon us, execution becomes more important to ensure that your customers receive their order in time. Below are a few things to keep in mind to avoid delays:

Order Forms: Make sure they are filled out correctly before separating payment. Provide a correctly filled out sample to each of your sellers.

Tabulating/Ordering: Be sure that each order is double-checked for accuracy before it is forwarded to the fundraising company. Make sure you take a look at the order verification to double check your quantities as there may be some companies that will not offer replacement orders or returns.

Payment:The form of payment will determine when your order ships. If you pay with an organization check or electronic payment, be aware that your payment will be held for a few days until it clears the bank. If you are mailing your check, take into account the transit time.

Delivery: Consider the date that you would like to receive your order. Calculate the time your payment needs to clear, transit time, and order processing. For example if a company has a 10 business day policy and you place/pay for the order on December 2^nd, your delivery date will be December 16^th.

Force Majeure: There are instances that are beyond your fundraising company’s control that may delay your shipment. Especially during the winter season, blizzards may shut down offices and shipping carriers may not be able to pick up or deliver orders. Also note that once an order is picked up by UPS or Fed Ex, companies do not have control of how it is handled.

By having a flawless execution, you will able to have a stress free fundraising!

Comrades in Sweat

The San Pro Baker to Vegas relay team consists of many volunteers and runners who participate in the Challenge Cup Relay/Baker to Vegas Relay which is largest law enforcement event of its kind. The 120-mile running relay from Baker, California to Las Vegas, Nevada is endured annually by law enforcement officers around the world.

The original ideals of the race continue: teamwork, camaraderie, physical fitness and competition. In the beginning, 19 teams competed, mostly LAPD and LASD stations. Over the last 25 years, this cherished event has grown to include 277 teams from agencies all over the world. Nearly 100 thousand officers/runners have competed in this event since its inception. Categories have grown to include Probation Officers, District Attorneys, US Attorneys and full time civilian police personnel.

It takes a huge commitment from the runners and support personnel to even get the team to the race. All members of the team use their own time to attend the race. This means that if your regular days off don’t fall on the days of the race, you have to use vacation to attend.

“Officers maintain a physical fitness program to help them better perform their duties in providing community safety, reduce crime, and assist victims through offender accountability and rehabilitation. ” says Linda Yoakum-Latimer, “All fundraising profits goes toward the race expenses, entry fees, vehicles, gas and administrative cost. There are no monetary profits… just the ability to say WE DID IT.”

To view event pictures, visit http://sdprob.shutterfly.com.

October's "Pictures are Worth a Thou$and Dollars" Winner: Fairmont Music

Stacey Barta was hired in 2006 to develop a competitive music program for Fairmont Preparatory Academy. During her tenure, she started a concert band, concert choir, show choir, pep band, musical theater and a faculty dance team.

Despite being only 6 years old, the program has competed and earned many personal awards-1st place trophies, national rankings of gold and silver, and many other top honors. The program is extremely diverse with students from the United States, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, and China. Invitations have taken the team to places such as San Francisco, New York, Hawaii and now London.

The organization is working aggressively towards the goal of raising $180,000 this year so they can perform at the London Festival of Music in April 2012. This is an inaugural event and they are hoping to upgrade their status from "National Champions" to "International Champions."

“Our biggest challenge every year is money. We do not receive financial support from our school beyond classroom necessities, so it is up to the students to raise money for their uniforms and competition costs which costs from $1,500 to $3,000 each year depending on where we are going for competition,” says Stacey.

“We raise a large portion of our funds from aggressive fundraising throughout the year. With so many challenges on an annual basis such as lack of instrumentation, lack of funding, and being a small program, I teach my students the most important thing of all for success – No Excuses!”

To see more videos and photos, visit Fairmont Music's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/FPA-Music/81361155942 or their website at www.fairmontschools.com.

Timing is Everything

When planning your fundraiser, the first question to ask is "when?" Timing is very important and depending on the kind of fundraiser you want to hold, certain times of the year of the year are better than others.

When planning the timing of your fundraiser, take the following into consideration:

· Make sure you do not plan your event on a big social or religious holiday or compete with an existing local event. Don't forget that final exam week is not an ideal time either.

· Take a close look at product delivery times, especially if you are having your fundraiser around the holiday season. Add some cushion just in case shipping is delayed due to weather and other causes beyond the fundraising company’s control.

· Avoid timing your fundraiser right after the winter holidays, when everyone is strapped for cash.

· Plan your fundraiser when you can reach the most potential consumers, so winter, spring or summer breaks are usually out. You also want to be sure that you'll have plenty of volunteers on hand to help.

· Your product may determine when you will have the fundraiser. For example, you don’t want to sell chocolate in the summer months.

Don't forget that your fundraising start/end dates affecs other areas:

· Announcement Date: Be courteous to everyone involved by giving an advance notice. The earlier, the better, so that they can mark their calendars.

· Marketing/Promotion: Your marketing needs will vary depending upon the fundraising type. Do you need the school’s approval to announce the fundraiser in the school marquee, perhaps need time for flyers to be created and printed, or need some time to create a website?

· Recruitment: Remember that the early bird gets the volunteer hours.

Your fundraiser will be successful if it is well-planned and well-attended: timing is key!

Holiday Bowl Cheer!

For over 15 years, Dream Dancers Studio has been offering dance classes from tap to tumbling. Their goal is to help build confidence, skill and an appreciation for the art of dance. The dancer's hard work paid off as the competitive dance team was invited to perform in the Orange Bowl in Miami, FL.

The dance team was very excited about the opportunity as this was a big deal to a small group of kids from Montana and they were the first team from the state to perform in a bowl game! Naturally the team was very proud to represent their state.

Fundraising coordinator Heidi Lamoreaux said, “We were looking for any fundraiser to do to help us achieve our goal. Your product looked amazing so we thought we would give it a try. We all made great money doing your fundraiser and will do it again because after people tried your product they told us to come back and they would buy more!!”

Heidi’s team has been invited back to do another bowl game and will be flying to San Diego, CA on December 25^th for the Holiday Bowl!

“We have done your fundraiser again already. It has really helped us reach our goal. We will do it again in the future to raise money for our dance competitions since so many people we delivered to loved your product. THANK YOU!!”

For more information about Dream Dancers Studio, visit http://www.dreamdancersmt.webs.com/

Meet our #Popcornmonsters!

Congratulations to Michelle, Sameer, Dan and Lisa for naming our #popcornmonsters!

We had a lot of fun creating them and got some amazing entries. We hope you enjoyed playing along as much as we enjoyed choosing their names from your entries.

Stay tuned, our popcorn creatures are sure to return soon!