Grant

Executive Summary:

            Venturing Crew 42 is an organization for young people to do fun activities, and give back to their community. We are only in our second year, but we have already done service in Homer Lake and at the local Food Pantry. We continue to regularly volunteer at the Food Pantry, and are already planning our next trip to Homer Lake.

            The other aspect of what we do is high adventure. We have gone on canoe trips, backpacking trips, rock climbing trips, and more. This upcoming summer, we will be going on a weeklong backpacking trip in New Mexico.

            Unfortunately, not all of our members can afford to go on these trips. The price of buying gear, buying supplies, transportation, and using services can add up quickly, and some of our members struggle to pay.

            In order to solve this issue, we want to establish a crew account. When a member falls short and cannot afford to come on a trip, the account will supply the remaining funds. This will allow more of our members to come to our outings. However, this will increase the time we need to fundraise.

            Since we would prefer to do community service than sell overpriced food items, we, as the members of Venturing Crew 42, ask that you consider donating $150 to us for every 10 hours we volunteer to help us establish a Crew Funds Account.

Needs Assessment:

            Every year, we try to go on about five or six outings. In years where we have a bigger outing, we only do about three or four. The cost of these outings will undoubtedly vary, some only costing about $25, while others can be anywhere between $100 to $200. When we have a large trip, it costs us a disproportionately large amount. The trip we’re going on this upcoming summer will be about $2000, and that doesn’t include the price of the gear every member must have.

            Needless to say, the costs will add up. If a kid were to go on every outing this year, they would end up paying about $2,250. It could be more, or it could be less, depending on what we plan to do. Some of the money we can earn through small fundraising opportunities at local events. However, these don’t make us very much money. The average fundraiser will give each member anywhere from $20 to $50, depending on how long they work. Considering we only have two or three of these per year, this is an insufficient method to pay for these activities.

            While some of the youth in our crew can afford to go on the majority of our outings, there are some who cannot. These youth come from families who are less well off, and they simply cannot afford to pay for every crew event.

            We have done we can to try to make up for this. We have volunteered to work concessions stands at University of Illinois sporting events. We have sold different items going door to door. We have been trying to find a way to make enough money that every member of our crew can attend our outings. Nonetheless, we have still come up short.