Below are the ideas that were presented on the cards I had you all fill out. I have included the names of the people who put them on their cards. HOWEVER, you do NOT have to stick with the event that you listed on your card. That really was sort of a brainstorming thing. I would like for you to read through this post, then leave a comment with your feedback on these ideas, even ideas that you aren't planning to be involved with. Include what project you would like to work on and how you think it should develop.
1. 5K-Caitlin, Megan, Kirklin, Parker, Eli, Erika, Kendra, Adam
I love the idea of a 5K to raise funds. It's a relatively easy fundraiser to pull off and has the potential to raise a lot of money. We would need to decide what organization we were raising funds for, obviously. I want this to be your event, HOWEVER... I love the HonorFlight deal that Jake wanted to do and I think you could do a tremendous 5K to raise funds for it. There are all kinds of ways to approach this 5K for that cause and I think you could do it so big and so well. We can expound on all that if it's something you want to consider.
2. Carnival type event- Caitlin
This could work well as a fundraiser too, although it's not something I have ever done before and so I'm just not sure how involved it would be as a project. We did talk about maybe doing a craft or art fair or show with it, which might work well. Again, choosing a cause is important. I think all of these working toward the same cause would be awesome but I'm not opposed to the activity fitting the cause, either, which would mean this one would be for another cause....
3. Living History Event- Megan, Meredith, Hope, Adam
This could be incredible and I think you guys could pull it off very well. I do wonder about the possibility of perhaps connecting the HonorFlight deal to this??? Maybe do a living history focused on LIBERATORS??? Oh man, this could go so far.
4. Words Matter-- Carolyn, Jocelyne, Kishan
I think you all were saying this in connection to the Stuart activity, which is wonderful. IF it's something that you want to develop as a memorial project, let's talk about those possibilities.
5. Stereotyping Activity-- Hope, Jocelyne
This is something else that I think you were saying in connection to the Stuart activity. However, it IS something that can be developed as a memorial and we can talk about that.
6. Garden (tree)-- Kaitlyn
A garden is a tough one because you have to work out a plan for it to be maintained. We DID discuss the possibility of just planting a memorial tree of some sort, which I love. A tree is easily maintained and we need to think through the possibilities of what we want to say and how we want to memorialize. IF we went with the liberator theme, we might want the tree to memorialize liberators??? This could also be in some way connected to the art project if it happens....
7. Volunteer Activity-- Abbey
Habitat for Humanity, Refuge Christmas, etc, are all possibilities for this and I think it's a STUPENDOUS idea. I would love for volunteerism to be a natural outcropping of this class as a whole on a personal level for people, but it also works as a memorial. We would probably want a larger group and I wonder if we could find a time or place that connected to whatever thread/theme we pick.
8. Video-- Jessica, Joseph, Khalia
I think this was mostly focused on the Stuart thing (might be wrong), but this will work for lots of other options as well. In fact, depending on if we pick a common theme or thread or not, it would be cool to do a promotional video on that topic....
9. Artistic-- Rose, Rachel, Meredith, Kylie, Valeria, Sammie Kate
I always love art but it feels like it's always hard to do something that can be displayed and appreciated. I wonder about something connected to the Memorial Tree, if we do that... Or maybe y'all have another idea... I would love to come up with something artistic, but I am no help in that area.
10. HonorFlight-- Jake
This is absolutely my heart right now. The next flight is the week before fall break, so we COULD go and see them come back home. They need money to fund the flights and I have the amounts listed below, so any fundraising we do could go to this. The absolute coolest would be if one of you (Jake) wanted to apply to be the student escort for the veterans. That would be AWESOME. Watch the videos on this page and see how this all works. Again, I want the projects to be yours, BUT I also want them to be meaningful and preferably connected in some way.
$500 per veteran, videos at the bottom
HonorAir Knoxville
