`

Community Giving Project

Coral Springs Charter School
3205 N University Drive
Coral Springs, FL 33065
Maliha Mahmud, Barbara Kaklias, Phillip Khaskin
December 28, 2020
Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
INITIATING 5
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING 6
EXECUTION 9
MONITORING AND CONTROLLING 11
CLOSING THE PROJECT 14
BIBLIOGRAPHY 19
APPENDIX 20
 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Charity: The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

School: Coral Springs Charter School

Leukemia is cancer of the body's blood-forming tissues, which includes

the bone marrow and the lymphatic system. Various types of Leukemia

have been discovered. Some forms of leukemia are more common in children. While other forms

of leukemia occur mostly in adults. There is currently no cure for leukemia. Associations like

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society are on the forefront of the fight to cure cancer. LLS is the

largest funder of research to advance cures. However, the necessary research required for this

fight can be quite expensive. With the proper funding, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society can

continue bringing the world one step closer to a cancer free tomorrow. The members of Coral

Springs Charter commit to contributing to the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is a national based charity

organization who is at the forefront of the fight to cure cancer. Coral

Springs Charter School will aid this organization in their endeavors by running a fundraiser to

spread awareness and raise money.

 ➔ Involve as many community members in the event as possible

➔ Host a successful event that will bring unity within the community in a COVID-friendly

manner

➔ Raise awareness and teach student body about civic responsibility

➔ Fundraise for Light Against Leukemia to surpass goal of $4,000+ USD donation

Coral Springs Charter DECA commits to raising money for the Leukemia

and Lymphoma Society. Maliha Mahmud, Phillip Khaskin and Barbara

Kaklias took the responsibility in hosting a New Years themed drive-thru

light show on January 2nd. We ran a campaign on Instagram promoting our event and urging

people around the community to help out by donating. We sought help by contacting local

businesses for donations and sponsorships. Parents from school helped out by donating materials

for the event. We scheduled a consultation with a potential lighting company that could help us

decorate the day of the event. Phillip Khaskin contacted an editor from Coral Springs Talk,

where our upcoming event was published and promoted. This drew in a ton of attention from our

community. Even though we faced many minor obstacles along the way, things were running

smoothly until we faced a big problem. The “Light Against Leukemia” event had to have been

cancelled for a reason that was beyond our control. However, we did not give up, and on January

8th we hosted a Dinner Fundraiser at Larry’s Ice cream to continue raising money for the fight to

cure and advance cancer research.

 II. INITIATING

According to the Mayo Clinic, leukemia is cancer of the body's

blood-forming tissues, including the bone marrow and the lymphatic

system. In the status quo, about 376,508 people in the United States are living with leukemia or

remission from leukemia. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) is, “largest voluntary

cancer research agency specifically focused on finding cures and better treatments for blood

cancer patients. With the scope and scale to fund many projects at the

same time, LLS supports hundreds of cancer scientists around the

world”. In 2019, the organization spent $367,321, 473 in total

functional expenses. Donating to LLS will alleviate the financial

burden of their day-to-day operations. According to their website,

“Individual donations raised through LLS fundraising ...support every other facet of the LLS

Mission, including our robust scientific research portfolio, patient services including help with

clinical trials, support groups and education, healthcare professional education and our advocacy

for patients in Washington, DC”. The incredibly high values of those affected by leukemia and

of the cost of treatment, research, and patient services is one that has to be addressed, and we

seek to support LLS in its mission to help.

 The purpose of Light Against Leukemia is to assist the Leukemia and

Lymphoma Society financially. LLS is a non-profit organization

which relies on donations to help patients out. It is incredibly important for them to receive

donations, as without them, LLS can’t function. Through a donation drive, drive-thru light show,

titled “Light Against Leukemia”, and a dinner night, we can raise funds to donate to LLS. It is

rational to believe that through the act of donating whatever we can to the organization, we will

most surely make a difference and help others out in the process.

III. PLANNING AND ORGANIZING

The goal of Light Against Leukemia is to donate $4000+ to the

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in order to help fund the yearly

expenses of their day-to-day operations, specifically those that assist patients.

Maliha Mahmud, Barbara Kaklias, and Phillip Khaskin are responsible for a variety of

tasks that vary in size and impact, but overall, the responsibilities of the project were split

evenly.

Maliha Mahmud was tasked with coordinating with Coral

Springs Charter administration in order to organize dates for the

events. She also kept track of the members that attended the dinner night. The trio all took
important roles in contacting businesses for sponsorships. All three called businesses over the

phone, each to different extents. Additionally, Maliha and Barbara went in-person to talk to

businesses. Phillip led the publicity for the project, contacting local newspapers and magazines.

Everyone also played a crucial part in managing the social media account and spreading the

word about the event. Maliha is a wonderful organizer, unmatched communicator, and is

incredibly dedicated to whatever she puts her mind to. Phillip is a creative problem-solver,

ambitious leader, and can inspire. Barbara is focused, extremely driven, and is quite passionate.

Milestones

There were many major milestones that needed to be accomplished. Our

first milestone was coming up with a safe and creative idea during these

unprecedented times. We had then come up with the idea of hosting a light show, which we

planned to be extravagant. That would be our first milestone. Our second milestone was

strategizing how we would put together this light show we dreamed of putting on. We shared

tasks such as ways to raise funds, the plan for the light show, and getting the school’s approval.

Our third major milestone was coming up with a replacement idea that would take the place of

our light show after unforeseen circumstances arose. A safe and fun dinner night would replace

our original plan, and still raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Timeline for Milestones

The timeline to reach each milestone all took place during the month of December 2020.

We brainstormed a creative event idea starting December 2nd, and ended up getting our event

approved on December 14th. Onto our second milestone, we began strategizing throughout the

first week of December. This process was crucial for us to form our plan. Our third milestone

was on December 31st. We were struck with plans our school had made for the same time and
place as our event. We then had to come up with an idea that would still fundraise for the

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which had always been our main goal. This had to be

accomplished by January 3rd, and the event had to be held before January 12th.

● Goal of total donations vs. Actual amount of donations

● Number of businesses we asked for sponsorships vs. Number of sponsorships received

● Publicity we anticipated vs. Follows and shares we received

There are numerous potential issues that could

negatively impact our community giving project. Each

issue requires a

predetermined response, in case the problem arises.

One issue that could affect our project is the Coronavirus pandemic. We have to

adapt to the pandemic, and make sure that the planned event is safe for everyone. This would

ensure anyone attending would be following the CDC guidelines, including wearing masks and

social distancing.

A slow influx of donations, as well as low levels of awareness, could also hurt our cause.

If this were to happen, it would be effectively countered by posting flyers, spreading

information, and marketing the event and cause.

Problems with the event itself, such as technical problems, would have to be dealt with

on a case-by-case basis. We would have the lighting company assist us with any problems

pertaining to the lights, including getting power to them.

Our proposed project budget was estimated around $2,500. We had received exactly $1020 of

monetary donations. For in-kind donations, we had white lights donated to us for our usage when

we were planning the light show.

The expenses would come from hiring the lighting company and decorating the school.

IV. EXECUTION

There is no execution for the Light Against Leukemia Light Show, due to the fact that it

had to be cancelled as a result of factors that were beyond our control.

After submitting a project proposal for a dinner night to Coral Springs Charter

administration on January 3rd, we were authorized to go ahead and plan a dinner night in order

to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). We were given a set of possible

dates including January 6th, January 8th, January 11th, and January 12th. The members of the

group agreed upon January 8th to be the date of the event. It would be the best possible date for

turnout, seeing that it was a Friday night.

To carry out the dinner night, we contacted numerous businesses. These businesses were:

● Phat Boy Sushi

● Pasquale’s Pizza and Subs

● Larry’s Ice Cream

 ● Cherry Smash

● Zona Fresca

● BJ’s Brewhouse

Eventually, Larry’s Ice Cream was chosen to be

our dinner night locale. The business

held dinner nights on Fridays and is also well known in

our community. In return, we would get 20% of all sales

coming from students, faculty, and other customers that

purchased items from Larry’s, as long as they stated that

they were there for the Larry’s Against Leukemia

fundraiser. On December 8th from 6PM-PM, the dinner night was held. Combined with our

previous fundraising and the dinner night, we were able to accomplish raising $1056.12.

On December 11th, the school opened up an account on My School Bucks for a donation

drive. All funds that would result from this donation drive would be used to fund the light show..

It ran from December 11th to December 30th. A grand total of $1020 was donated. The

following is a timeline of the donations:

Date Donation Total

12/15 $5

12/18 $45

12/20 $20

12/21 $100

12/22 $420

12/24 $145

12/28 $120
 12/29 $50

12/30 $115

Overall, a total of $1056.12 was raised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This is

the total sum of money raised from donations and dinner night.

V. MONITORING AND CONTROLLING

Each deadline on our schedule would come with a checkup of progress and success. We

would go over updates, donation totals, and

anything else that applied to the project. For donations, we could monitor the total amount, who

donated, and exactly when. A spreadsheet was created to keep track of all of these variables. On

the Coral Springs Talk article, the number of shares, specifically on Facebook, was closely

followed and monitored. Additionally, activity on the Light Against Leukemia Instagram page

was another factor that was being watched closely. The Larry’s Ice Cream dinner night was

monitored in two ways. Students that attended were asked to send their receipts to the CSCS

DECA Instagram account, so that we could keep track of the attendees. Additionally, the

percentage of sales that had belonged to the project were monitored as a result of communication
between the business and our project members. The quality of the overall project was measured

using the amount of donations, success with our schedule, followers on social media, shares from

our publicity, and overall confidence in the project.

The first problem that was encountered pertained to the location of the drive-thru. At

first, there were many possible sites for the light show.

This included Sabal Pines Park, our high school parking lot, a combination of the school drop-off

loop and library parking lot, and our back parking lot. Ultimately, this problem was solved

logically. We simply did not have the time, nor the budget to hold the event at Sabal Pines. The

high school parking lot of Coral Springs Charter was far too small, and navigating through there

with other cars could cause problems. The combination of the school drop-off loop and library

parking lot dealt with the same problem that applied to Sabal Pines. Our budget wasn’t large

enough. As a result, the back parking lot fit the criteria for our vision.

We could decorate it without going over our budget, it wouldn’t cause

navigation problems, and was, overall, a great place to hold the drive-thru.

Budget was also a significant problem. Money did not flow in at the rate that we had

hoped. Efforts to attain a sponsorship were unsuccessful, due to time constraints. Following a

consultation with JM Holiday Lighting, we agreed that the goal of the donation drive would be

$1000, due to the payment for their services being split evenly into before and after the event.

Following this decision, we also enlisted the help of the student body to decrease expenses. The

budget problem was solved logically, and we simply rearranged our goals.

By far, the constrained timeline was the largest, most impactful problem we had to face.

Not only did it prevent us from getting corporate sponsorships, but it put tremendous stress on

the project. We dealt with this problem by simply working hard. We worked during weekends,
vacation, and never stopped. Although it didn’t expand the timeline itself, it alleviated stress

from the project.

Help from the student body was sought in order to decrease the burden of expenses. The

problem with this was that the student body was enjoying their Winter Break, meaning that a

large portion of the body wouldn’t want to help, as they were relaxing. This problem was solved

by targeting those that had connections, specifically Drama and SGA, in order to get as much

assistance as possible. As a result, 16 students volunteered to help our cause.

Initially, publicity about the event was a problem. To get information out to the public,

we started an Instagram, which

gained 110 followers.

Furthermore, we reached out to

the Coral Springs Talk for a

possible article. The Coral Springs

Talk article accrued 197 shares on

Facebook. This definitely resolved

our publicity problem.

Logically, the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic was a problem for any event. We decided to tackle this with the drive-thru,

as everyone volunteering would’ve worn masks and other protective gear. Additionally, the

safety of those attending the light show would’ve been ensured, as they’d all be in cars. To

ensure the safety of those attending the Dinner Fundraiser, Larry’s Ice Cream simply followed

necessary protocols, including mask-wearing and social distancing,

 Lastly, the fatal blow to the light show came as a result of miscommunication between

school administration and the project. Administration had placed a painting job on the walls of

the back parking lot between December 30th and January 3rd, completely impeding the progress

of the project. The hassle to move the date, which would go against the New Year's theme, was

too much of a problem, especially due to the fact that we found this out two days before the

preparation was set to begin, December 28th. As a result, the event was cancelled, and we had to

transition to planning a dinner night. It is important to note that this doesn’t completely eliminate

the possibility of a light show in the future, of course depending on several factors.

VI. CLOSING THE PROJECT

Goal of total donations vs. Actual amount of donations

We had set a goal to raise $4000+ USD. We feel that this goal

wasn't fulfilled effectively as we had a short amount of time to advertise our campaign. We also

weren’t able to go through with our original idea of hosting the New Year’s Drive-Thru light

show where we expected to have a good turnout. Nonetheless, with our donations and dinner

fundraiser we raised a total of $1056.12.

Number of businesses we asked for sponsorships vs. Number of sponsorships received

We had set a goal to at least get 3 businesses to sponsor our event, but this goal was not met. We

felt that because we were planning over the holidays, most business owners were busy or out of

town. Not to mention, sponsorships were hard to attain with the limited time given to us.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any sponsorships from businesses.

Publicity we anticipated vs. Follows and shares we received

When we made our Instagram account we had hoped to reach a goal of at least 100 followers and

hoped for 50 shares on our Coral Springs Talk article. We actually exceeded our goal and gained

110 followers on the Instagram account and 197 shares on the Coral Springs Talk article.

Initiation

Our initiation wasn’t as effective as we wanted at the end, as our

event didn’t meet its goal to its entirety. Our purpose was to host a COVID- friendly New Year's

Light show event to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Although that did

not go as planned, we still were able to successfully raise funds to donate to the organization.

Planning and Organizing

During the process of planning and organizing, our group worked very efficiently

together. We scheduled a meeting via Zoom to discuss possible event ideas and organizations

we’d be interested in donating to. Once we established an event idea, charity, and event name,

we assigned roles to each member to be carried out throughout the planning of our event. Maliha

contacted administration at our school to get our event idea and date approved. After discussing

things over with administration, our event had been approved and was scheduled to be held on

January 2nd. To avoid miscommunication with each other, we had daily meetings to discuss our

progress. We also kept each other up to date by communicating through a group chat via text.

Each member contacted a variety of businesses to obtain possible donations and sponsorships.
We also reached out to a local lighting company, JM Holiday Lighting, and had our first

consultation on December 8th, where we showed our location and tried to build a vision of the

event with the budget we proposed. During this time, our additional involvements in other clubs,

as well as midterm week, were stressful factors when working on the project.

Maliha created the Instagram account that we had used to inform

the general public about our event, It was also utilized to spread updates

about our event to students at school. Phillip made a total of five flyers

that we used to promote our event, specifically those that outlined the

event, the location of the event, the event start and finish time, and a QR

code that brought them directly to the donation link when scanned. We

anticipated to get a great audience the day of the event and to do so, we

took the next step of advertising our event to our community. Phillip

contacted an editor from the Coral Springs Talk, a website used to publish

articles about news and events going on in our city. After getting in contact, they decided to

publish an article bringing in more publicity for our event. In addition, Coral Springs Talk posted

our event on Facebook where we reposted to local facebook groups affiliated with our city.

Furthermore, each of our group members contacted various teachers at our school asking

if they’d be willing to offer extra credit. This way we could spread incentives to have students

from our school to come out. We also contacted different clubs at our school such as the National

Honor Society, Student Government and Key Club to inform their members as well. We had

members from Student Government offering to help out with the event. Thus, Barbara made a

group chat with all the volunteers and scheduled a meeting through Zoom to update them on our

plans.
 The date and time frame we had did not work to benefit us. We feel that if we had more

time, then we would have organized the event better. However, we still feel that our group

worked extremely hard on promoting and planning the event. Unfortunately, days before our

scheduled date to have the event, we had heard from our advisor about a problem that had

unfolded. While our group worked through all of the obstacles that we had faced throughout the

project, this was one obstacle that was out of our control. Our administration suddenly informed

us of a paint job that they had accidentally booked the same week that we were putting together

our event. The location of our event would be preoccupied and there was no way to fight it.

Nonetheless, we didn’t give up. We presented administration with a similar idea in a different

area at our school, but unfortunately the idea was disapproved. With the short time we had left, it

was best to host a smaller event and take the lessons we learned to hopefully try again next year.

We contacted restaurants around our city and scheduled our ice cream fundraiser at Larry’s Ice

Cream on January 8th. Through donations and the fundraising night we were able to raise a total

of $1056.12. Although we are still upset by the situation, I think it helped us gain perspective and

insight as to what it takes to host a successful event. My group mates and I are grateful for the

lessons learned and the connections we made with the local business owners in our community.

We hope to take this knowledge with us and try again for next year!

Execution

For donations, we shared a Google folder amongst all us where we had a Google Docs

with all the businesses we contacted for sponsorships, a Google sheet of the sponsorship

packages we offered to businesses, and a Google Sheet of every donation we received through

the link. After our Light Against Leukemia cancellation, we decided to start calling restaurants

nearby to host the fundraising night on January 4th. Maliha called Larry’s Ice cream that same
day and got an approval for Friday. She kept in contact with the manager and their business’s

graphic designer to create a flyer for the event. On Wednesday, January 6th, we started to

promote our event on social media. The timeline wasn’t

ideal, as we hoped for more time to advertise for our

event, but with the timeframe we were given, we still

made it work. To create incentive for students at our

school to come out to our event, we had asked various

teachers if they could offer extra credit. Our DECA

chapter was also offering “diamonds”, which are used to

measure membership activity, to those who attended. To monitor who went, we asked students to

send in a picture of their receipt through our DECA Instagram page and our DECA Remind.

Maliha kept track of DECA members that attended the fundraiser and forwarded the list to our

DECA membership director. Those who attended for a teacher, were asked to send a receipt to

them directly. Maliha kept in contact with the manager after the event to receive the total

earnings for the night.

Monitoring and Controlling

Phillip and Maliha arrived at the dinner night shortly after it started to monitor the turnout

of the event. We went around and took pictures of fellow members from our chapter. To monitor

the attendance of DECA members, we asked them to message us a picture of their receipt

through our DECA Instagram page and had others who came for extra credit send a picture to

their teacher directly. We gathered all those who sent receipts and conformed it to a list which

we then sent to the DECA membership director and DECA president. The quality of the overall
project was measured using the amount of donations, success with our schedule, followers on

social media, shares from our publicity, and overall confidence in the project.

For future projects we hope to start planning and organizing earlier. We felt that getting our

assignment for our project late worked to be a disadvantage to us, especially since we were

planning a big fundraising event for our community. We were still happy to have hosted the

dinner fundraiser and raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Even though our

original event idea did not take place, we still feel we were effective in the sense of raising

money for the organization. Thankfully, we still were able to

raise $1056.12

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cechapter. “Why Give to LLS?” Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 25 Feb. 2015,

www.lls.org/who-we-are/why-give-to-lls#:~:text=The%20Leukemia%20%26%20Lymphoma

%20Society%20(LLS,cancer%20scientists%20around%20the%20world.

Dangelor. “LLS Statement on the Closure of the Lymphoma Co-Pay Fund.” Leukemia and

Lymphoma Society, 4 Apr. 2018, www.lls.org/lls-us-hq/article/lls-statement-on-the-closure-of-

the-lymphoma-co-pay-fund#:~:text=As%20a%20non%2Dprofit%20organization,the%20timing

%20of%20the%20donations.
Dangelor. “Mission.” Our Mission | Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 29 Mar. 2018,

www.lls.org/who-we-are/mission#:~:text=The%20LLS%20Mission%3A,edge%20research

%20to%20advance%20cures.

LaRussaA. “Facts and Statistics.” Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 3 Mar. 2015,

www.lls.org/facts-and-statistics/facts-and-statistics-overview/facts-and-statistics#:~:text=There

%20are%20an%20estimated%20376%2C508,from%20leukemia%20in%20the%20US.

“Rating for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.” Charity Navigator,

www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3993.
VIII. APPENDIX

In order to spread the word, we started an Instagram account. It is pictured above.

The Coral Springs Talk also posted on Facebook about the event, helping our publicity efforts.
A series of flyers were used to convey information. The focus of flyers ranged from general

information, donations, updates, and formal statements. The following flyers were used:

Pictured below is the Facebook post that helped to advertise our event and donations.