Issued by:  NHToDo Magazine
Contact:  Daron Libby, Executive Editor
Phone:  603-425-2292
Email:  editor@nhtodo.com

Cheshire YMCA Students Sell NHToDo to Earn Money Towards Washington, D.C. Trip

Swanzey - The mission of the Cheshire YMCA is to provide quality programming, with an emphasis on youth, to develop positive values that enrich the spirit, mind, and body. To this end, the Cheshire YMCA offers the American Heritage Tour to 8th graders in towns throughout southwestern New Hampshire. County Program Director Laura Wilson says, “The program has been in existence for over thirty years. It started as the “Know Your Government” program with one van and has grown to the American Heritage Tour with two or three buses serving over 400 students annually.”  Working in conjunction with the local schools, each group of about 100 students participates in a seven month Cheshire YMCA program where they undertake group research projects and learn about the places to which they’ll be traveling. All their effort culminates in a memorable trip to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Gettysburg and Ellis Island!

The six day trip includes the bus transportation, lodging, three meals a day and entry fees to all attractions and comes to about $700 per student. Director Wilson had been looking for a way to help the kids raise part of the money and formed a partnership with New Hampshire ToDo magazine of Londonderry, NH.

New Hampshire ToDo (NHToDo) is a monthly magazine full of ideas for fun things to do and interesting places to go in New Hampshire. With feature articles written by a freelance pool of 300 writers and photographers, the magazine is on newsstands throughout New England, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and a subscription is $24.95 a year for twelve issues.

NHToDo put together a Personal Earnings Program for the Cheshire YMCA in which students sold subscriptions for $24 and earned $8 from every subscription sold. Unlike most fundraising programs, the money raised was credited to each individual seller rather than pooled to reduce the cost for the entire group. Executive Editor Daron Libby explains, “We wanted to create a program where each student gained personally from the money they earned by selling NHToDo. Too often, money raised in this way goes into a general account and the student and their parents do not feel much of a direct benefit. With this program, every subscription sold is literally money in their family’s pocket.”

With the program concept in place, Libby then approached local businesses to help with prize incentives and the response was overly gracious. Any student who sold two subscriptions earned a free DVD movie rental from Video Headquarters in Keene and Movie Gallery of Jaffrey; five subscriptions sold earned a free ice cream from Friendly’s. For the big prizes, the students needed to sell 20 subscriptions - their choice of a free pass to Canobie Lake Park in Salem or a portable DVD player!

Libby recently explained the program to sixty-five students from Jaffrey/Rindge, another 110 students from the Swanzey/Hinsdale/Winchester area and nearly 100 in Chesterfield. The kids liked the idea of helping their parents by earning some of the money towards the trip but really loved the chance to win some great prizes.

Pictured here are the top sellers in Jaffrey-Rindge Middle School and Monadnock Regional Junior High School. Briana King of Rindge was the only student from both groups that sold 21 subscriptions. Not only did she earn nearly $200 towards her trip, but she won the portable DVD player and was also awarded another $100 cash towards her trip to Washington, all compliments of NHToDo.

   
Photos:
1 - NHToDo Executive Direct Daron Libby hands out prizes to top sellers from Monadnock.
2 - Briana King of Rindge accepts her prize for being the top seller in New Hampshire.