If you are into charity work, then you will realise how difficult it is to come up with new ideas for helping people or raising money, especially if you are on ‘the committee’.
Not everyone agrees with charity work, believing that governments ought to take on the function of charity worker, but no one could refute that governments are not doing enough, so individuals and charitable organizations have to step in.
As a supporter or as a charity worker, you obviously have the right to choose whom you support. A hundred years ago, middle class charity workers attempted to help the local poor; then after the Second World War, charities started searching further afield and Africa and other places became the focus of their assistance.
These days, the cycle has turned full circle for many of individuals and they are beginning to look to the local underprivileged again. The old expression that ‘Charity Begins At Home’ appears to be ringing true with people again. So what could you do to assist the local poor?
The YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, USA, has come up with a fresh idea. They found that numerous people bought at least one swimming costume every year. Those individuals may hang on to them until the next year, if they especially liked them, but they would still buy a new swimming costume every year.
The thing is, that individuals hang onto their old swimming costumes until one day, they find them at the back of the draw and it occurs to them to throw them out. Sometimes, for ladies, the top half will break – a strap or the clasp – and they are left with a pair of bottoms. Men tend to hang onto their bathers for years.
At the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, they decided to initiate a campaign to collect all the old swimming costumes, jumble them all up and invite parents and kids in to choose a ‘new’ swimming costume.
A lot of the kids that turned up, particularly the girls, had never had a swimming costume before – they had always worn cut down jeans and a t-shirt.
Now, there are several ways you could go about this, when you have collected your boxes of swimming costumes. You can try to create sets for girls – tops and bottoms that match – or you could merely throw them all together and let individuals have the fun of making up a two article swimming suit.
If you are trying to raise money for something like school books or a new church roof, then you could make a fixed price per swim suit. However, if you are trying to attract adults or kids to your establishment – say a Sunday School or a local community centre – you could place a promotional leaflet in with every costume when it is bagged.
You could also have volunteers standing about willing to give fashion advice or you could sell tea or coffee and homemade cakes. Whichever way you look at it, this is a very nifty concept for helping individuals acquire an affordable/free swimming costume and get your concept over.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several topics, but is currently involved with Speedo Swimming Costumes. If you would like to kcurrently more, please visit our web site at Swimwear For Big Busts.