Use this forum to reflect, assess, and evaluate the entire process that took place and was executed for Kick-It. Portions of this reflection will be used in the evaluation process for this action plan.
I think that the entire Kick-It event was a huge success. From the planning stages, to staying after school, to the the execution of the day. A lot of hard work and time was put into the entire thing from each member of the class. I think planning this event was a very helpful and good way to demonstrate an action plan as well as following through with it. The Kick Bald event was a major success and a wonderful idea. Students were talking about it the entire day and telling me what a great cause Kick- It truly is. It really amazed me to see the involvement from so many different students. The event itself was also a great success. I found myself taking a moment when we were playing kickball, to look around the entire field and take in all the people and the noise. It was amazing to realize all the hard work and planning that went into that moment. It is wonderful knowing that we raised well over our goal of $12,000. I will take the skills and techniques learned by putting on this event into any leadership event I hold in the future.
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Hallie Stacho
5/1/2013 09:43:58 am
From the beginning, I honestly wasn’t sure how we were going to make Kick-It successful. We all had great ideas to raise awareness for the event, but turning these thoughts into action plans seemed difficult and tedious. I was even more apprehensive when our goal was set at $12,000. That number seemed so far away, and I didn’t even know what to think if we fell short of that goal. And suddenly, like gears kicking into place, our fundraiser started to come together. Kim and Kobo were up on the announcements, Drew and Dan were handling pizza, Erin and everyone else were emailing, tweeting, and spreading word. I spent one class making countless phone calls to local businesses. We all asked everyone for donations and even people not in our class (Anika and Steven) helped get the word out by advocating for Kick Bald. We met with the 8th graders, too, to get NDES involved. We started with the end in mind, knowing that Kick-It had to be a success because we were doing it for Sam, Dom, Mr. Brandt, and Mr. Pioch.
I couldn’t believe that the day of Kick-It we had already surpassed our goal, not including monies from t-shirts, dress-downs, NDES, and other Kick Bald checks.
Even Kick Bald was a huge success. It was amazing and heart-warming to see people from our own school cut and shave their hair for this cause. I loved being right in the action, too. I, myself, have donated my hair twice for cancer patients. I had fun helping the girls who donated their hair get ready for their picture and take in the fact that their hair was now 10 inches shorter. It was truly wonderful.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend Kick-It because I had a lacrosse game and a commitment to my team. Leaving the school, however, I could hear fun music blasting from the field and see lots of people heading over to play. After the event, all I heard were good things: the actual games went well, the little kids adored the high-schoolers, there was enough food and water, and the music made for a fun atmosphere. It was upsetting not to be at the actual event, but I’m so glad others were able to enjoy it. I’m also thrilled and so proud of our class for nearly raising double our intended goal. I feel like I learned a lot from this entire process; not to sell yourself short because strength comes in numbers. Our class had everyone on our side the whole time, and together our school community made a difference for every child or adult whose life has been affected by cancer.
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Nick Evans
5/1/2013 11:16:38 am
Even though it proved to be a pain in the ass at first, i loved the whole experience. I knew we would achieve our goal but never thought over $20,000 would be raised! Kick bald really worked out and i think we represented our school well on the news. It showed northeast ohio how strong our community and care for others actually is. Kick it was the most fun though. I loved playing with the little kids and they got really into it. They were sliding into first base even. I really appreciated how respectful, yet competitive the kids were. Their parents were thanking me so much for giving their children a good time while doing it for a good cause. Our action plan came together perfectly.
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Julie Zagar
5/1/2013 12:37:07 pm
to be honest, I was very skeptical about kick-it. I knew the year before did it together in no time, but I felt like our goal was high and at one point, unreachable. We had a lot of great ideas for the event but as days went on and weeks ended, it seemed like we were getting nowhere. Our tally barely moved online and it seemed as if we weren't too excited to get donations or go out into the community and raise awareness. I myself was slacking and figured if I wasn't doing my part, was anyone else? We were coming closer to a the date of the event and ideas were still in our head and not into actions.
I think the KickBald idea and assembly is what really got us motivated. Thank God Mr. Murray took action and got this thing rolling and the help of Anika and Steven to advocate for it and raise money helped us reach our goal tremendously. There were moments that I got teared up at the event because of how impactful and giving the students and teachers were to shave their heads. The moment Erin sat in the chair to donate her hair was the moment everything came together for me, that we were doing something right for the community and that this really hit home and would impact and help so many.
As 2:00 came around I was excited to go out to the field and get the games going. To see all the little kids running around and having fun and the highschoolers doing their part in leading their teams truly showed what leadership was all about. Even though I wasn't playing in a game and I was running around doing everything, it was a great day with a lot of memories and showed me how we can come together and almost double our initial goal by being leaders in action.
I think the hardest part of the day for me was being there knowing that I wasn't attending my bestfriend's grandfather's wake. But she told me, "Nonno died of cancer, kick-it for him."
Trying to recap everything that happened as I counted money in Mr. Murray's room after the event was hard in itself. It's really hard to realize that in three weeks we raised that much money and together as a class we succeeded. I'm so proud of everyone who took part and helped out to make it such an amazing day.
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Jenny Raguz
5/1/2013 12:59:57 pm
The whole Kick-It planning process was fun to be apart of, but I must admit, initially I was a little unsure if we would meet our goal of $12,000. I think how we started with just brainstorming different ideas played out very smoothly. Many people wanted to have some sort of assembly that would raise money in which the teachers would somehow be involved. While that was kind of shot down due to time and other circumstances, in the end, with the Kick-Bald event (with teacher participation) the assembly concept did indeed take place. I think the Kick-Bald concept to the Kick-It game added more energy and excitement to the students as more people, who may usually not get involved, got involved.
Because I play a spring sport and am in-season with many games a week, and have some grumpy old coaches who don't permit missed or tardiness to practices it was often very hard for me to attend some after school meetings or go out to businesses after school and on the weekends. I was so upset when I could not attend the Kick-It game as I had an away game of my own- just like last year. But preparing the field and going to the meeting the morning of, only got me more excited for my friends who were participating but more importantly for the great cause we were promoting and supporting.
Seeing everyone's reactions on twitter and pictures on instagram Monday night was so great and overwhelming as I was a part of something so great. The school had our back through the entire planning process and truly came through when we needed them to the most- not for us, but for the cause we were supporting. I feel so blessed to have had this opportunity to not only learn, but to be apart of something so great and rewarding to myself and pediatric cancer. I personally think the entire Christian Leadership class rose to the occasion with some great motivation by our personal connections as well as Kim and Kobo keeping us all on track and focused.
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jill rosegger
5/1/2013 08:22:42 pm
Kick-it was a huge success in many different ways. Not only did it help us raise money for pediatric cancer, but it also made our christian leadership class, NDCL, and community as a whole come together. In the beginning, I was overwhelmed by all that we had to do and i honestly didn't think it would all get done. I didn't know how we were going to raise enough money to meet our goal and how we could actually get the school to want to get involved. The more we started thinking of ideas we could do to raise money, the less nervous i got. But i still didn't know how we were going to be able to execute all the ideas in 3 weeks time. When we got back from spring break, i knew we had to really crack down and start to work and actually do everything we had been talking about. Our whole class really came together in trying to raise money on their own, going out together to different pizza places, calling different businesses, creating signs and posters, and the list could go on.
Another aspect of Kick-it that contributed greatly to the success of the whole event was getting the entire school to get involved. It started with just telling the students what Kick-it is about. The students automatically had a little interest, because they could make teams and they saw how great last year went. The interest increased even greater when we offered them the deal of whichever team gets the most retweets, gets a lunch anywhere of their choice. KickBald by far got the most attention of the students though. This showed how our school sacrifices for the needs of others and how our school can really come together for a great cause. KickBald was a huge success, many students volunteered to do it and the students that watched at the assembly were moved by the efforts of everyone who took part in it. The assembly itself went extremely smooth, all the students were interested the whole time and we had amazing hairstylist that came there on their off day to help out.
Although i wasn't able to attend Kick-it because of my lacrosse game, i heard nothing but great things about it. I know everyone on my team who couldn't go were extremely jealous because of how fun it looked. I think that is a great example in itself to show how great our class advertised Kick-it and how great of an event it was. When i talked to others who had gone to Kick-it they were ecstatic at how much fun they had with their fellow classmates and also the ndes children. This in whole helped our NDCL and NDES community come together. There aren't really any other fundraisers that our schools do where we both can come together like this.
This whole Kick-it event was leadership in action. From beginning to end, we did followed what we had learned in all the classes before and put it into action. There is something to be said for actually doing the things we learn in class and i think this event reflects greatly how leadership is within every one of us.
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Sheila Smith
5/2/2013 04:42:32 am
At first, things were a little rocky with Kick-It. I felt like we all had such wonderful ideas and hopes for the event, but we had a hard time setting them into motion. We, as a class, weren’t sure how to begin planning and how to get things started. I was honestly unsure of how things were going to turn out. I always was a little awkward in the planning process because I wasn’t sure what I should do to help out or what I could contribute. I wanted the event to be a success, but I wasn’t confident in my skills as a leader in this particular environment.
Still, the energy in the classroom was great and as we became more productive, things got better. Kick-It began to develop a shape and a personality. I knew that the standard aspects of the event would happen—donations, food, kickball, raffles—but then KickBald totally came out of left field. I felt like it was such a surprising event. I couldn’t believe the tremendous amount of donations that people received. It was incredible! I felt like as KickBald came into the picture, things really started to mesh together. Kick-It became a reality and not just a plan.
On the day of Kick-It, I had already been scheduled to work so I couldn’t attend, but I was sending positive thoughts to those at NDCL. I heard loads of positive feedback about the event and people seemed to really enjoy themselves. Looking back on things, I wish that I could have contributed more to the event. I wish I would have been more outgoing in participating and adding ideas. But I’m still glad that I was able to be a part of this Christian Leadership class!
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Mary Lenk
5/2/2013 09:24:44 am
I was skeptical about Kick-It at first. I wasn’t really thrilled that we were forced to pick up what last year’s class started, while the first semester class was able to act upon their own ideas. But the whole Kick-It initiative turned out to be a success. I’m actually surprised by it all. When we first started, Mr. Murray just seemed to be lecturing in front of the class about what we should do and how we were going to do it. During the meeting with Karen Neimeister no one seemed to know what was going to happen. There were many ideas but no plan for action. I don’t really know when the turning point was, but it all started moving quickly and students became more and more engaged.
It’s pretty cool that we raised over $20,000 in such a short amount of time. The efforts of Mr. Murray, Kobo, Kim, Erin, Anika, and Steve really made the difference. It was inspirational to see Erin getting involved in Kick-It for her dad. She really demonstrated leadership, not only by doing her part, but by quietly and purposefully making a difference that inspired others to get involved.
Our two initiatives, the Twitter challenge and KickBald also turned out well. The Twitter idea really was a great idea because it required minimal oversight and it allowed students to promote Kick-It through a simple tweet. With the internet, the network just branched out and reached more and more people with every tweet, email, and post. Anika and Steve made KickBald work well. I think the students enjoyed seeing the teachers get their heads shaved. Getting the school community involved was key to our success. We were able to get people talking and taking the initiative.
The event was a nice way to end the fundraiser. It was a good way to show our support for those affected by cancer and our thanks for all the donations. Although I worked the concession stand most of the time, it was cool to see the children, students, and parents enjoy the games. The best part for me was seeing Dom shave his head. My cousin died of pediatric cancer, and I know it’s a hard journey.
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Kim Saluan
5/7/2013 06:02:03 am
Kick it was an amazing experience. It started off pretty rocky. I was worried we would not meet our goal when we were just throwing out numbers at first. I heard a lot of people saying good ideas but unsure of how to actually execute them. When i was elected to help lead the class I was very nervous. Since I was leading Kairos too I was worried I would not be able to put 100% in to help us to meet this goal. With Adam as my co leader though we could easily communicate and he kept me apart of the planning even from Kairos. I could see everyone in the class putting in effort and going out into the community. I was confident we would reach our goal as soon as i saw how passionate we all became about the cause.
I think Kick Bald was a huge factor in all of our success. It was two events for the same charity. It was awesome to be the first class to do an event like this for Kick it. It was nearly bringing tears to my eyes seeing all the people who raised money or cut their hair. Especially when Erin just jumped in and inspired a few other students to do so. It was a great feeling seeing how much this meant to each of us and the charity rub off on others. I'm so happy the administration let us do this and i hope it is something future ndcl students and other schools will continue.
Overall, I think Kick it was a huge success. Kick Bald was not the only time i was basically in tears. Throughout the whole day, seeing how many people came out to play or support also made me very proud. Everyone was texting me asking what they could do to help. One specific moment, when they said or the sound system at the game that we made over $22,000 nearly doubling our goal and still had money processing. Wow. I feel like that will be a moment I will never forget. Diana and I looked at each other and our mouths just dropped. I was so proud of kobo myself everyone in the class and everyone in the school for making this the most successful service project. Everyone did their part at some point as far as I'm concerned. During the game i think we all, including myself, were getting a little distracted. But it was a great atmosphere so that is completely understandable. Overall I think everyone did their part and it was a humongous success. I'm honored I was chosen as a leader and had the opportunity to participate in this event. I still cannot believe just how amazing it was.
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Tom Fening
5/10/2013 10:19:02 pm
We started slowly for sure. I think everyone was waiting for someone to step and do something. Once that happened the ball really started to roll and it just kept on rolling. Our school community was very supportive of Kick-It. Many were more than willing to shave their heads and raise substantial amounts of money. They were also very into the Twitter war idea, which helped immensely. Finally many of our class mates were there at kick-it to either play or help.
Kick-It was such a great experience to be a part of. I always felt like I needed to do something and that I was being counted on. On the day of kick-it, I was in awe of what we had done. I could not believe that had raised over $20,000 and put together such a remarkable day and even though I was only present for part of the event, I did umpire one game and had a lot of fun.
Kick-It was such an amazing thing to be a part of mostly because I have some experience in doing something like this. I have the knowledge of creating an action plan and also seeing what true leadership can do. That is something that will stick with me for the rest of my life. Kick-It is something I will always remember and be very proud of.
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Daniel McIlroy
5/20/2013 07:56:16 am
Well to be honest, the whole year I was skeptical of the entire class in general. Mr. Murray kept on saying how this class would change all of us and we would all come out different people. I would always think " Oh that's just a bunch of B.S." I just took it as another class that I needed to get a good grade in. When we started talking about Kick-It, I really didn't feel like doing anything. I just wanted to sit in my seat and be a reserved and passive student. All I wanted was my "A" for the semester and I didn't want to do anything more than that. AS the days went on, Mr. Murray kept on asking for help and one by one people would volunteer to do certain things. I volunteered to help out with getting pizza. But to be honest, I figured that the other people could end up doing it and I wouldn't have to do anything. I was just being a selfish and lazy boy.
THen, one class as Kick-It was drawing nearer and nearer, I specifically remember Mr. Murray talking to us about how Kick-It was only going to be as good as we make it. It is up to us to get off our butts and do something or else the whole fundraiser will fail. For me, this is the moment when I truly changed. I realized that I was just being lazy and selfish and I needed to change. As a result, that afternoon I began toi go to area pizza stores looking for pizza. Drew then began to help me and we went out multiple nights just looking for pizza. It was actually pretty fun and I am so happy I finally came out of my comfort zone to carry out this task.
When the day for Kick-It finally came, I was amazed at how well our class did in putting on this event. We all helped out the Kick-It fund through our own little efforts. I was an umpire for the games and I had a blast just watching everyone have fun with each other. I am so grateful for this entire experience and I will be sure to share this experience with many others.