All School Dodgeball Tournament
By Sarah Hill
My school's FCA did this last year as a fundraiser and we ended up raising a ton of money, however, you could also do this event as an outreach, and not as a fundraiser. if you do it as a fundraiser, then you would charge each dodgeball team a certain amount of money to enter the tournament. (Our entry fee was ten dollars)
Here are the steps you need to follow to hold your dodgeball tournament:
1) Plan with your leadership team and figure out what you are going to do with the money you raise (if doing a fundraiser). I strongly suggest that you use it for something that the entire student body can relate to and support. This way, more people will participate because they actually care about the cause you are donating to.
2) Decide on the dodgeball rules you are going to play with. Also decide how many people you are going to allow to be on a team. (We made it a rule that there had to be at least two girls on every team)
3) Decide on a date (I recommend doing the tournament over two or three days after school) then, book the gymnasium you will be using (Do this very far in advance because gym space gets filled up very quickly)
4) Get the word out. Use your school's daily announcements, posters, flyers, word of mouth, anything you can think of to get the word out.
5) Hold sign-ups (Allow a week or so for people to sign-up. I recommend that you collect the team's money at the time of sign-up. it makes everything easier) you can do this before or after school, or even at lunch.
6) Finalize the details on how the actual tournament will run. (Make a bracket of all the teams, decide who will referee-I recommend teachers, will you use a P.A. system to announce who is playing next, who wins etc...finalize anything else you can think of)
7) Hold the tournament! Make it an exciting and fun environment. When we held our tournament, the kids really got into it, coming with team jersey's and themes, one team had capes and masks...
8) Figure out how much money you raised, and if you want, you can go to a local bank, tell them what you have done, and see if they would be willing to match your donation.
**We also held a bake sale during the course of the tournament, it helped us raise even more money
**If you are donating to a cause that really has affected your student body, then contact your local newspaper, and see if they will come out and cover it. (Example: My school's principal's sister died from brain cancer. Her sister was a very well known nurse at a local hospital, and we discovered that the hospital was building a non denominational chapel in her honor. We thought since it was FCA, it would be a really cool cause to support. Since the issue was so closely related to our student body, everyone got really into it, and it was a success! Local newspapers came to cover it.)
This outreach/fundraiser is a great way for your school's FCA to reach out into the student body, and the community!