Christmas Tree Committee Members : Ken Gregson, Lisa Gregson, looking for one more volunteer!!!!

A word about fundraising:

    Okay, it's more than a word.  Each non-profit organization goes through its fair share of fundraising, as the registration fees simply don't go very far at all.  If other outfits are like Scouting, the registration fee primarily covers legal fees and insurance at the national level.  In other words, out of the registration fee of $255, 6th St Agnes gets about $25, the balance goes to Ottawa.  So, we need to supplement that in order to meet the needs of an active program and defer the costs of the camps and activities as much as possible.

    Each registered youth with 6th St Agnes is required to do 2 fundraisers throughout the year.  The biggest of these is the Christmas Tree sales with a number of other groups on the North Shore.  While this is still advertised as the West Van Scouts Christmas Tree Sales their enrollment numbers are down over the years and the simple fact is that they needed some of the other groups on the North Shore to assist them in running and organizing the lot operations.  This event alone brings in about $4000 minimum for our group alone, so you can see how important it is for us to participate!

    In addition to the Christmas Tree Sales that each member does, the beavers and cubs participate in Apple Day during a weekend usually mid-October (they get more money because they can work the cuteness factor!) and the scouts run the Christmas tree chip-up in the first weekend of January.  In addition there may be extra methods that we try to use to bring in some additional revenue in the always-challenging effort to help ease the cost of running a quality program to families and our group alike.  

    In all, these fundraisers require about 4 hours of your time.  About 2 hours for each event.  We expect everyone to participate in their 2 duties in this regard, and a missed shift without advance notice and an acceptable excuse (sleeping in doesn't cut it) will result in a lost opportunity to capitalize on the subsidies the 6th offers for various camps and events.  For example, if we're able to subsidize our year end all-sections camp by 50% (our usual goal), one missed shift might mean a subsidy for that youth of 25%.  Two missed fundraisers in the same year would mean the loss of any and all subsidies for camps and events.