I just came back from an exciting meeting about a new fundraiser that will benefit the American Cancer Society and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.  A local businessman came up with the idea to celebrate, remember and fight back by changing our annual "Pack The Place" basketball event to a "Paint The Place Purple" event at our area high school.  On December 18, students and fans from Olympia High School (Stanford, IL) and University High School (Normal, IL) will come together to "Paint The Place Purple". 

Commemorative purple t-shirts will be sold to anyone who'd like to purchase one.  Purchase a t-shirt and you get into the game free.  The cheerleaders, band members and (if we can find a way to make it happen) basketball players will all be wearing purple at this event. 

We'll have some public service announcements and a survivor recognition at the event.

Students at both schools are competing to see which school can sell the most t-shirts.  (The cost of the t-shirts was underwritten by sponsors so 100% of t-shirt sales will go to the American Cancer society.)  We're having some other fundraisers to benefit St. Jude. 

The interest in the event is huge.  (We had been struggling with how to get our high school students involved in the fight against cancer.  I think we've found a way!)  We're hoping that it will be a model for the other teams in our conference so that all schools will change their "Pack The Place" to "Paint The Place Purple"!

If you've done anything like this and you have some suggestions/lessons learned, let me know.