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Teenagers

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Original poster

Expedition to Peru Sponsorship

32 replies

Clarita12345 · 21/03/2015 15:35

Hi there,
My son's school is offering an Expedition to Peru next July 2016. my son would like to take part in this 3 weeks expedition that cost £3600.
He said he wants to get most of the fee through sponsorship.
Would you have any ideas how he could do this?
Thank you

OP posts:
BackforGood · 21/03/2015 17:14

Honestly? I'm always a bit Hmm about asking someone else to pay for what will be a great trip for your dc.
Dn't get me wrong - both my older two dc have done a lot of fundraising for wonderful trips away, but they have always offered people something in return - from cake sales to babysitting to washing cars to doing bag packs to arranging nights out such as quizzes, dances, and cooking meals for people, etc.,etc.
I wouldn't expect anyone to just give money so my dc can have a great time - they need to earn it.

BernadetteMatthews · 21/03/2015 17:16

I think being as though practically every school offers this type of thing now, expecting to just get sponsorship is very unlikely.

As PP said, he'll have to really work at fundraising. Car washing, cake sales Etc. It's going to take a while and be very hard but I think that's the point.

Waswondering · 21/03/2015 17:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

glittertits · 21/03/2015 20:52

I wouldn't sponsor a holiday for your DC.

Lots of articles like this doing the rounds at the minute:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-cambodia-aids-holidays-madonna

It is a holiday.

Original poster
Clarita12345 · 21/03/2015 21:43

Wow, please don't get me wrong..
I never meant for him nor he meant himself to get a Free sponsorship, I would like him and he's already thinking of ideas to help him fundraiser the money. ( I can afford to pay for his trip ) but since he is turning 16, I want him to start thinking of earning & deserving the money. Thank you for your ideas Smile

OP posts:
ShebaQueen · 21/03/2015 21:53

My son did this but ended up getting a part-time job as he needed a substantial amount of money. My family also all chipped in, giving him money instead of presents at Xmas and birthdays.

He did do a few other things such as babysitting, cake sales and car washing but only made a relatively small amount of money. He sold DVDs and consoles and games he no longer wanted on eBay, Game and musicMagpie - added bonus it cleaned up his room at the same time! He and his friends ran a quiz night at school which was very successful.

It was well worth it end the end, he had the trip of a lifetime and valued it more than if I'd just paid for it for him. Good luck to your son.

Littleturkish · 21/03/2015 22:02

What a great opportunity!

Organising quiz nights/race nights/curry nights with raffles and auctions.

Car wash, baby sitting, ironing, cleaning!

Does he have any talents? Could he offer tutoring to primary school children?

Best of luck.

Original poster
Clarita12345 · 22/03/2015 07:34

Thank you Sheba & little turkish
He plays football and can train small kids. He can help with Maths, french and other subjects,... Good idea to get him to sell stuff on e-bay... I am redecorating the house and need quite few things out of the way Smile

OP posts:
UsedToBeAPaxmanFan · 22/03/2015 10:05

I think that if your ds wants a trip of a lifetime, then he and you should pay for it. He can earn money by car washing, babysitting etc. I don't think you should expect other people to fund your son's holiday.

I don't think quiz nights with raffles are appropiate, I go to quiz nights which are held for various local causes (cubs, school, etc), I wouldn't go to one which was in aid of someones holiday fund, and I certainly wouldn't donate a raffle prize. I've been asked before to sponsor friends dcs who are doing similar trips and have felt pressured to give £5 or whatever for them to walk a certain distance. I do resent it.

For some reson, people think its ok to try to raise money for their dc to do a trip to somewhere exotic. I think you need to replace "trip to Peru" with "holiday to Disney world" when considering if you should ask people to contribute. If it doesn't sound appropriate, then it's not.

SecretSquirrels · 22/03/2015 12:13

I think these trips are a huge con really to get youngsters on what are essentially very expensive holidays.
I would ask, would he have been thinking of this kind of holiday if the company had not given a "talk" at school? If you were booking a holiday to Peru, would you not research travel providers first rather than the one who happen to have targeted you with their marketing?

I am happy to donate to charity but never to fund raising for this kind of thing, nor for sports, sponsorship etc.

specialsubject · 22/03/2015 19:19

these trips are always much more expensive than he could do if he waits until he is old enough to go on his own.

if you do want to do it this way, he works for the money. Not sponsorship/'fundraise', WORK.

not going to Peru is not really going to affect his education or development, is it?

LIZS · 22/03/2015 19:24

Dc school encourages collective fundraising among the participants of each project as team building - supermarket bag packing etc. They also do thing like refreshments and raffles at school events.

JeanSeberg · 22/03/2015 19:29

£3600 for 3 weeks? Jesus Christ, I'd love to see how that's broken down. You could do it privately for half that easily.

LIZS · 22/03/2015 19:32

If it is like the one Ds investigated it includes a contribution towards materials for whatever project they are due to undertake.

JeanSeberg · 22/03/2015 19:36

Stay at home and send the money to the 'project' instead. These trips make me angry. No doubt there'll be a worthy slide show and talk post-trip so everyone can feel good about their missionary work.

sparing · 22/03/2015 19:38

Depends what you mean by sponsorship.

As far as I understand, if your being sponsored it's usually to do something hard, eg run the marathon, or 24 hour fast or sponsored skip....

Do you mean fundraising?

scoobydooagain · 22/03/2015 19:38

If it's sponsorship, it's really got to be impressive, not just a 10 mile walk or something. My boss recently did a (overpriced) cake sale for a similar trip for her son, she didn't get much as the consensus was the money was for a trip for him so he should have put the effort in and not mummy.

LIZS · 22/03/2015 19:39

£1800 for 2 weeks in Romania!

sparing · 22/03/2015 19:40

Bear in mind op when I took a gap year £3600 would have paid for me to travel through South America for 3 to 4 months..... is he sure he's not being ripped off?

sparing · 22/03/2015 19:42

Some of our 6th form sold soup and a roll at lunchtime to the teachers. They got people to sign up on the Monday and made it to order on the Friday. Seemed to work quite well.

Car boots are usually quite profitable.

Littleturkish · 23/03/2015 07:36

A football fun day could be good- ask his PE teachers to help him organise a tournament (teachers can ensure the correct insurance!).

Getting together with others and doing a car wash at school- I know the teachers at my school would DEFINITELY go for this!

Sad to hear so much negativity, in my experience students who say they'll organise something themselves never do, and as long as hard work is put into the raising of the money for themselves- where is the harm?

It's a great experience and so much more than a holiday.

Inncogneetow · 23/03/2015 07:47

I think these sort of things are taking the piss, tbh. If I go to a charity fundraiser coffee morning and support the event by buying some over-priced cakes or frilly bits of tatt, it's because I want to help the good cause. I refuse to do this to pay for someone who wants to go parachuting, or travelling the world.

Through various coincidences and the fact of moving schools, ds2 has never been on a residential trip in secondary school (unlike ds1, who went on loads). So when an opportunity came up for a trip to China in yr12, we said yes. He has paid for a significant proportion through his savings and money that he's earned from part-time jobs, plus birthday money. We are paying the rest by instalments.

I wouldn't dream of asking anyone else to contribute towards this trip.

mayfridaycomequickly · 23/03/2015 07:48

I'm with others who say pay for it. I've done a trek / aide type holiday before. Most of the group, including myself, had paid for it. Others had fund raised - I honestly couldn't believe that people had donated money for them to go on a trip of a lifetime.

mayfridaycomequickly · 23/03/2015 07:50

turkish 'Sad to hear so much negativity, in my experience students who say they'll organise something themselves never do'

So the teachers should organise events and insurance?

af2000 · 23/03/2015 07:50

I think some people are being very negative about this. I understand not wanting to fund a glorified holiday but I don't think all these trips are like that.

I went on one when I was 17 (though it was called an expedition). We were in Peru in the rainforest, we worked with 3 renowned research institues/universities and we were basically their research donkeys.. We actually did all the donkey work, we dug holes and did soil profiles, we sat up all night catching bats to ensure the protected status of that particular reserve remained, we worked for hours and hours logging all the different species of macaw that flew past. Ok, the professor we were with probably could have got other people to do it but I was thrilled that it was me. And then when I went on to apply for uni I had some amazing things to put down on my application and some actually practical knowledge to apply too (as I was studying geography).

In terms of fundraising, my parents couldn't afford to pay for my trip, nor would I have expected them to. My dad and I did car boot sales. It was bloody hard work. I lived in a village and explained what I was doing, everyone was very supportive. So basically I asked people if they had any junk or stuff in their garage or shed that they had been meaning to take to the tip or sell, my dad and I would come and pick it up and then once a fortnight would do a car boot sale. The people were fully on board and supportive. It took a lot of effort and looking back I couldn't have done it without my dad.

I think these trips are an amazing opportunity if the young people are actually doing something Useful.