We just had a fun and successful fundraiser at our house, on Lekwungen and Esquimalt homelands, in support of the Unist’ot’en Action Camp and I wanted to share some thoughts on what we found worked for us in preparing to host the event! This is to encourage other folks can host similar events and hopefully we can all contribute lots of support to the Action Camp.
First off, this idea came from the Action Camp that happened this past summer, I believe, as people there discussed doing it. I first saw the event happening on Facebook and thought, “Cool! I wanna host one!”. It helped me to join that event even though I wasn’t in the area, to see how they organized it. Many thanks to the camp hosts, the brainstormers who came up with this idea, and the people who hosted the event that I learned from.
First and foremost, we wanted to be sure that the event was in alignment with what the Unistoten Camp was looking for and so tried to keep the focus on the camp, provide links to the camp’s website, and invite people from the camp to the event (even though most folks are not in the area where I am currently living) on Facebook so that people involved on the frontlines could see what we were planning and could let us know if anything wasn’t in alignment with the camp’s requests for support. Their website also very carefully outlines how to support the camp here: http://unistotencamp.com/?page_id=24, including an outline of how to “Throw a Kitchen Party”! Check it out!
Here are some of the logistical parts of creating the event that my roommates and I wanted to share:
After finding a date that worked for all of us, we created a Facebook event and also a matching email to send around. Not everyone I know has Facebook, so creating an email meant that the information reached further. If I was doing it again, I would make a poster too, to put up around town and in coffee shops. We didn’t put our address down on the general invite, since it was public, but instead asked people to RSVP via email to myself and then I emailed out the address closer to the time.
Here’s an example of the email I sent around to my contacts (this is also similar to the information I used to make up the Facebook event):
Dear friends! What: Come and join us for delicious pancakes by donation, with all proceeds going to support the Unist’ot’en Action Camp! We will have pancakes, waffles and gluten-free and vegan options as well. And maple syrup! YUM! We will also watch some short films about the camp and will have information about pipelines available, so we can feed our bellies AND our minds. There will also be artwork for sale and all the proceeds from the event go to supporting the Unist’ot’en Camp*. Why: The Unist’ot’en Camp is a resistance community whose purpose is to protect sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory from several proposed pipelines from the Tar Sands Gigaproject and shale gas from Hydraulic Fracturing Projects in the Peace River Region. You can read more about the camp here:http://unistotencamp.com/ When: Sunday October 27 3-6pm Where: RSVP for address Who: To RSVP and if you would like to help on the day of or if you can donate some ingredients, please email me (Annie) back here 🙂 Love! Annie
*I am a printmaker and so I created some artwork (with direction from folks at camp) to sell at the fundraiser, for a suggested donation of $20.
I then started contacting local grocery stores and cafes to ask for donations. First I would usually call or write an email to the store, explaining who I was, what I was doing and what it was for. Here’s an example:
Dear <grocery store>, I am a community member who is planning an event for this upcoming Sunday, October 27. We are hosting an event called, “Pancakes Not Pipelines”, to raise some funds to support a community called the Unist’ot’en, who are working hard to protect their lands against destructive pipeline companies. We are going to make delicious pancakes to serve to our friends, in exchange for donations to the action camp. You can read more about the Unist’ot’en here:http://unistotencamp.com/ We are looking for some help with the food and wondered if <grocery store> might be able to donate a carton of soy milk, a box of salt, one container of baking powder and a bag of frozen fruit for a topping, to make the pancakes with? It would really help us send all the money we raise up to this awesome community! Thank you so much for your consideration, Sincerely, Annie Banks
We had a really good response from local grocery stores and cafes, especially smaller ones with a more community-focused agenda than the larger box stores. If I didn’t hear back by phone or email, I would either go in and try to talk to a manager or I would call or email again. I found that when I requested small amounts (such as one pound of coffee or a carton of eggs), people were pretty willing to donate. The beauty of this is that you can make 12 dozen pancakes with a carton of eggs!!! We ended up getting all our ingredients donated pretty much – plus some of our guests brought beautiful things to put on top, such as apple sauce, plum sauce, fruit, and jam. Persistance is key with donations – if someone doesn’t reply, just keep contacting them until you hear back! I let stores know that we’d mention where the donations came from.
Many coffee shops provide a lot of support to events and we requested one pound, which wasn’t a problem for the coffee company who donated it. We had more than enough with just that one pound.
In asking for donations, we made sure to get ingredients for gluten-free and vegan options, as many people in our friend groups have allergies or food preferences. The ingredients for gluten-free pancakes can be a little more expensive (the flour or the pancake mix especially), so getting that donated was really helpful. We actually ended up only making gluten-free pancakes because all the flour we had was gluten-free. And they were really tasty! Dawn wrote down the ingredients for people who might have allergy/food restrictions and we made sure there were different options for people to have.
Leading up to the event, we all sent out reminders on the Facebook page and I also messaged all the members of the group (but now that option seems to be prohibited on Facebook) and I updated it whenever we got a donation. I also posted an image of the artwork for sale, to entice people to buy it! Also, I posted the link where people could donate even if they couldn’t come. Friends also “shared” the event, which really increased our outreach. It was awesome to see how many people I didn’t know who came!
We asked for some volunteer help in our Facebook event and email and luckily had some super-star volunteers come early on the day of to help us. They helped us prep batter and make coffee and generally just set up the house. People also took turn dishwashing, clearing plates, and replenishing food. That helped a lot!
Our neighbours kindly offered the use of their kitchen and this helped a lot for us to be able to go over there and do dishes, etc. It also helped us get to know our neighbours, who later came and joined in for pancakes! Community-building!
A friend who had recently been to camp shared some of her experiences and we put out our computers with the Unist’ot’en’s website open on it. We had a crafty project related to local land struggles here on Lekwungen lands available for people to work on too and various literature and information on the camp and pipelines for people to read. The crafty project was also fun for kids to participate in and was good for people who wanted to engage in a quiet way. There are a lot of great videos that have been made about the Unist’ot’en Camp, about fracking and pipelines, about resource extraction, etc. (many of which you can find on their website or through various links – http://unistotencamp.com/?page_id=405), which could be playing in the background or queued up ready to play if anyone is interested and wanting to learn more.
Many homes, especially older ones, are not accessible for people with limited mobility (i.e. where stairs are difficult, etc.) or in wheelchairs, etc. and where I am currently staying is not accessible so we fortunately were able to take the party out on the lawn in order to ensure everyone could take part. Getting creative around space so that all members of the community can come is important and while it’s not always possible, sometimes there are ways to expand the accessibility of a space (like going outside if it’s nice, etc.).
In the end, we raised over $300 with donations still rolling in (we are now at $350!), and the event didn’t actually take nearly as much time as other events we have put on and we didn’t have to put in hardly any of our own money up front or anything so it was an accessible event financially for us as hosts.
In hindsight, my roomies Dawn and Melina suggest a few things we could have done: Dawn mentioned that we could have used sidewalk chalk to write messages about the event around our block, we could have contacted a local food organization to ask for more fruit donations, we could have taken a note around to all our neighbours to invite them and explain what was happening. Melina reminded me that calling or texting people personally can be a lot more effective than just e-inviting them (and some folks aren’t online at all!). It’s good to do a little debrief to find out these things so that our next event can be even more effective! I welcome feedback from folks too – send me a message or an email (anniembanks at gmail dot com) if you have anything you’d like to mention.
Noisy and Quiet 