Our first fundraiser

Before starting any of the work on the kilns, we arranged to do two fundraisers. The funds raised from these events went back to the artisans to help pay for the labor.

I’ll start this off with a description of our first fundraiser – the raffling of a blender.

The raffle worked as follows – we made up about 25 lists. Each was numbered and on each list were the numbers 1 – 10. The women went to their family and friends and sold a number on a list for $.25.

Yes, I helped sell numbers and I believe I shook down pretty much everyone I know in the country.

On September 15th, we held the raffle in the Health Center of the community. To make sure no one would suspect foul number picking – we asked a doctor to pull the numbers.

At first, my boss in Peace Corps won – but he’s such a great guy that he allowed me to re-raffle the blender….even though he didn’t know it at the time.

The second winner was a little old woman from my community who was thrilled to have it!