Benefit Cakewalk questions

[della92]

I'm not sure this in the right place, but I have questions regarding a benefit cakewalk.

I am in the beginning stages of planning a benfit cakewalk for my sisiter in law, who has cancer. I have never planned an event like this and I haven't been to very many, the last one was probably 3 years ago. I will have help with my other sister-in-law and the rest of our friends and family-we are all suppose to meet this weekend.

Any ideas you can think of would be greatly appreciated, I especially want to know how to prepare the food, I think we will be having hotdogs & chips and it has been suggested that they be heated in a crockpot. How do you do that? Just put so much water in the bottom and then place the hotdogs in? How many crockpots would be needed for a crowd of 100?

Here's what I've got:

-place (local VFW-free-yeah)
-band (working on getting in touch with a couple local bands that do this for free)
-food (hotdogs, chips, drinks-hopefully all donated) how much to charge?
-no problem generating the cakes (we think we have a large group of friends and family
- 50/50 raffle -how much per ticket, $1.00?
-door prizes (again hoping on local donations)
-advertising (newspaper and flyers at local businesses) anywhere else?
-cake walk tickets-how much per ticket?
-what do you think about face painting for the kids? I believe I could talk my neice into doing this?

What else am I missing?

Thanks for all your help.

Della

[StartingOver]

Just a thought - I recently was at a benefit to help a family whose child was diagnosed w/cancer and they were able to find a business that did a "Matching Fund". Meaning whatever they raised, the business matched up to a certain amount ($2,500.00) Pretty cool. Maybe look into that.

The event I attended was $5/ticket and they had hamburgers, hotdogs, beans, salads, chips and assorted desserts.

There was also a silent auction. All items were donated by different businesses. I know they raised a lot of money to help with their ever-mounting medical bills.

Best of luck. Good to hear that you will have a lot of help. Many hands make light work!

[della92]

The fundraising part is going to be the hardest for me. I can organize and direct, I just don't like to ask for donations. I have generated a letter and will call local business to find the right person I need to speak with and then I will go in person to ask. But all I really need is the food donated and if worse comes to worse I can buy it myself, so it should still be a success.

[Michelle68]

It sounds like it'll be a great success and I can't think, off hand, of anything you're leaving out. I would maybe sell cake walk tickets for $2 each. If I lived close to you I'd certainly attend. We love cake walks. When my DD was in high school we embarrassed her terribly (DH, DS and I) by all participating in the cake walk at her school festival. We cake walked three times and won a cake each time. Now that my DS is in middle school, it's his turn for parental embarrassment. There was a plant walk at his school festival and I won a plant the first time around. What can I say--it's a gift.

Good luck with your fund raiser. I think sending letters to local businesses for donations with a follow up call is a good idea.


--Michelle