Alanna Eaton

November 30, 2011

Service Project Paper

Bayaud Enterprises

When I read about the rubric for the service project, I had a mini panic attack. I had no idea what I was going to do, or what company I was going to help. When I read the lecture and I saw the section about Bayaud Enterprises, I immediately emailed Benn Stebleton. Not only do I love holidays, but I was super excited for planning one because I think that’s a direction I want to go for my future career. Plus, I get to help the less fortunate and their families have a holiday to celebrate and I always love that feeling. I believe it was the following week or so, but I met Benn at the volunteer fair on campus. He gave me a ton of information about Bayaud Enterprises and explained to me what the holiday party was about.

So, I signed on with three other girls from class, Charissa, Courtney and Taylor. Basically we were to help the staff at Bayaud Enterprises put on a holiday party for their clients and their client’s families. Bayaud puts on this holiday party every year for their clients. So, the girls and I divvied up all of the responsibilities for the party. I decided to take on donations for presents, keeping track of the budget and timeline. Charissa decided to get the decorations, re-wrote the donation letter and has been updating our planner for the past couple months. Courtney made the invitations and is in charge of the games for the children. Taylor took the responsibility of finding the caterer.

It has been a whirlwind of events these past couple of months. When we had our first meeting in September, I was a little overwhelmed and disorganized. But Charissa found this great template for us to use to keep track of all our responsibilities. And before each meeting, Charissa would update the planner and email each of us a copy so we all could be updated for each other. This was so helpful and frankly I’m grateful she found it. If she hadn’t, we probably would still be disorganized and I would probably be freaking out a little at this point. But I started off with an awesome level of excitement and I’m still at that level. I can’t wait to see how the party is going to turn out!

As I stated above, my specific role was to fond donations for presents, keep track of the budget and timeline. I started going out and asking for donations about a week or two before our third meeting. I went to about ten stores handing out our donation letters and explaining the reason I was there. I went to stores like Target, Dick’s, Best Buy, Macy’s, etc…Although, every store I went into they would tell me that they would get in touch with me in a few weeks. Sadly, I never heard from any of them.

At our third meeting I was super nervous to tell everyone I couldn’t get any donations. I would definitely say I went into panic mode. All these thoughts started running through my head like the kids aren’t going to get presents, my entire group was going to be mad at me and I would get a bad grade. But, little did I know, the staff at Bayaud set me up for failure. When I told them how unsuccessful I’ve

been, they said that’s what they expected. They just wanted me to get the experience; to go through what they go through on a yearly basis. Usually stores divvy up their money for donations and such at the beginning of the year. So pretty much any place I would try, they knew I wouldn’t have any luck. And as much as that sucked to hear, it was also a huge relief.