FLORIDA SCHOOL SUPPLIES
MISSION STATEMENT
It has always been my passion to help people in my communities that do not have the same opportunities as me. For this reason I decided to start a project where I could create a project on a big scale within my new community in Florida. This project will be setting up a fundraiser for high school students that are in education facilities with less financial means. The goal of the project is to raise money so I can buy school supplies for the students such as: notebooks, pencils, and pens.
ABOUT ME
Raul Akhundov
Hello! My name is Raul Akhundov, I am a student at Saint Andrews and I will be turning 17 this year on November 30th. The very first ever voluntary work that I had ever worked on was a challenge that was presented to me in my old school back in 7th grade. In this challenge every student was given 10 manat (equivalent to around 6 dollars nowadays) and asked to raise as much money only being allowed to use this money in a month which would then get donated to a shelter for impoverished kids. Some kids partnered up, others quit, some went solo. For me I partnered with 2 of my closest friends who lived right next to me to try and gather our funds so that we could have a small headstart. At the end of the month our group raised a little over 1200 manat (700 dollars) making us the group that raised the most money. Through fundraising, baking, buying and selling clothes, and lemonade stands we were able to positively affect our local community. The next year, in 8th grade, I wanted to do something externally, outside of school and I was able to, by organizing a group with my friends where we partnered with a shelter for less fortunate kids through connections in our school. We were able to create a community project where we would play soccer with the kids at the shelter every wednesday after school. In the process of doing so every week we would raise money for the ultimate goal which was to buy the kids some clothes for sports and food for after each practice. We were able to raise enough money to give over 15 kids a pair of shoes, shinpads, long socks, shorts, and a customized kit that would have their names on it designed and printed by me. The rest of the money that was left over was used up by us to buy the kids water and food for the practices. The entire process from fundraising through bake sales and donations, to playing football and seeing the excitement of the kids' faces was a truly fascinating and eye-opening experience for me. Now that I have moved to Florida, a completely different continent, I want to help people here who are my age locally just like I did back in my old school in Azerbaijan. I figured that helping people in underserved schools with education is something that benefits not only them but the entire future generation as the kids of today are the adults of the future. This is why I am creating another project on an even larger scale to help older kids with education and their supplies.
Services
We work with local non-profit organizations and underserved schools within the state of Florida to better the community and help raise as much money for school supplies.
Fundraising is a crucial part of our work as a non-profit organization. All proceeds of our organization will be donated to our partners and schools.
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We conduct interviews with local experts, non-profit leaders, and scholars to get a better understanding of the lack of supplies in our community and how to tackle this issue in the most effective way possible.