Months before COVID-19 became a global reality, Undurba State School’s oval was alive with colour and laughter as its students and their families teamed up to raise money for school chaplaincy.
“I heard of colour runs happening – another chappy ran one at the school my son was attending,” Beck recalls.
“So I hopped on Google, found out Australian Fundraising facilitates colour run events, and the rest is history!”
In total, 193 Undurba State School students raised $10,005.56* for the school’s chaplaincy service in 2019.
Chappy Beck found the whole process very easy to manage, with Australian Fundraising organising most of the logistical aspects of the day.
“Every kid receives a sponsorship form booklet that has a unique code in it, which they can use to set up their own personal fundraising page on the Go Fundraising website,” she said.
“Australian Fundraising also has a heap of prizes and incentives depending on how much the students raise. If they receive cash, they can enter that manually online and I set up a drop off point at the school office.”
“Just to know that the fundraising was all taken care of after the set up gave me peace of mind. For the event itself I didn’t do any fundraising personally, it was all the school kids.”
Beck said having the help from Australian Fundraising allowed her to spend more time being a chaplain, and not a fundraiser, in her school community.
“I think as chaplains we have to be really smart as to how much time we commit to fundraising,” Beck says.
“Bringing in a support group like Australian Fundraising is really helpful. I got email alerts whenever there were donations or registrations, which kept me up to date on the money amount and how everything was going, but aside from that I didn’t have to do a lot.”
“On the day, they did all the set up. They brought in boxes and boxes of the colour dust, which is easy to clean and safe for the kids, as well as an inflatable start/finish line and obstacle courses. All I had to do was go down to the oval with them and show them where we wanted it set up.”
Overall, the event was a huge success, both financially and as a positive event for the staff, parents and students.
“The students really enjoyed the day – just running around the obstacle course while the teachers and their parents threw colour at them,” Beck says.
“I loved the fact that it was a whole school event too. Regardless of if a kid raised money or not, they were able to come down and join in the fun, and got a free pair of sunglasses and a funky headband from Australian Fundraising to boot!
“It really brought everyone together; it was lovely to stand back and see the whole school community having fun and being involved in something so positive.”
Chappy Beck’s top 5 tips for running a colour run…
- Be organised. Keep thinking about what has to come in the next week!
- Don’t focused on the money. See this as a great opportunity to rally the whole school community.
- Communicate! Make sure the school staff know what is happening. If it’s impacting on school time, be considerate and let everyone know well in advance.
- Think about numbers! If you have hundreds of students, try to split them into two groups so they are not too crowded as they run through the colour-course.
- Have fun!
For more information about Australian Fundraising and getting a colour run organised for your school, click here.
*Please note, Australian Fundraising will take 35 percent of the total funds raised. In Chappy Becks case, her chaplaincy service received $10,005.56 directly from the $16,171.14 total raised.