One day, I saw my friends so sad and concerned about something. I asked them what’s the matter. They shared that they did not have enough money for hotels and transportation to attend their company’s national convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. They thought about giving up their plan of going there. I suggested: “How about doing a fundraising?!” They said: “No, it’s not gonna work. No one will give us money. And whom can we ask for money anyway?” I told them: “Hold it! Hold it!” If you think you can’t do something before even doing it, you already lose! How about this: We won’t ask people for money. Instead, we will provide them excellence service for Free! People have no problems giving good tips or donations for high quality and friendly service. Let’s do a carwash fundraising!”
My friends were all excited and ready to listen to my lead. They were working for a Health and Sciences company. Their NorCal team has 200 people. I told them to divide the group into 20 people per group, then go find busy street locations and ask the carwash-shop owners to kindly allow us to do a fundraising at their parking lots on the holiday when their shops close. If not, we would be happy to pay for an “affordable” rent price. Things worked out well!
My next suggestion was to let me design a “Lamborghini” to make our event even more fun. I cut and built it entirely from the cardboard boxes, and painted it orange. It was about 40” long and 28” wide. One “unique feature” of my Lamborghini was that it had two sexy “wheels” – my feet! Imagine a child wearing a rubber ring around his/her body when swimming. Yeah, I wore my Lamborghini like that and walked around the sidewalk happily advertising our service: “Free Carwash! Free Carwash!” (Remember! I did not tell you that I wore bikini, so don't take your imagination too far!) ... Laughing out loud ....
It took a special kind of "guts," a sense of humor, and a reasonable silliness to do what I did!
I know, it’s not good to be distracted while driving. Did it, however, captivate the people’s attention and interest? You bet!
The people seemed curious about the girl “in” the “Lamborghini.” They poured in the parking lot and asked what it was all about. I shared with them my friends’ story, and they loved the idea. I told them: "Call your boy-friends, girl-friends, your Mamas, AND the Nannies! We got Ya covered!” They laughed and the parking lots got more crowded, along with the increased generous tips and donations that people gave us!
We got different carwash locations all happening at the same time. However, only the place where I was in charge had the “walking Lamborghini.” I got “baked” under the sun like a hot dark chocolate! We washed cars from early in the morning until the sun went down.
Regardless of the exhaustion, I felt warm in my heart that we raised $5,000 on that day, and I was able to help my friends when they were in need.
It’s true, as the saying goes: “A friend in need is a friend indeed!” I thanks my friends for the opportunity to experience such a fun day with collaborative teamwork, full spirit of hard work, pure joy, and so much excitement. My friends have lighted up a happy corner in my heart...
Thank you all!
