On Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023, from 9:30 am to 12 pm, volunteers from the Oakland Gardens Branch hosted a fundraising sale to support Team Seas, an organization dedicated to removing trash and plastic from our oceans, seas, or any other bodies of water. For every one dollar that we manage to raise and donate, this organization will remove one pound of trash from our oceans. We also had more members joining us today, as our group is growing in members. Some of our members specifically came today to join us, as some live far from here.
During the 2.5 hours we hosted the fundraising sale, we passed out flyers to spread awareness about AYLUS as well as Team Seas. We decided to donate to the Team Seas organization as their vision is to remove trash and plastic from our oceans, seas, and any bodies of water, which will help better the quality of life for the ecosystem. Our purpose for this sale was not just to raise money, but to make a change in our world and spread awareness about Team Seas so more people can come together to make a big change in our world, bettering our oceans. We are donating the $200 to Team Seas to remove 200 pounds of trash and plastic from our oceans, seas, and bodies of waters.
As this is our second fundraiser, we managed to use our experience from our previous fundraiser and managed to streamline our process and be more organized. This time, there were more members in attendance, allowing us to spread further and work together to raise the $200. Some members stayed at our stand, while others walked around with signs to promote our cause. Our members’ parents supported our cause: they learned how to make balloon animals to help us with our fundraiser.
What we believed mattered the most was not the money that we raised, but the actions and thoughts behind it. For example, today some of the people that we met didn’t have bills on them, yet they still donated their change to us to support our cause and help in removing trash from our oceans.
Special thanks to our local Post Office that allowed us to host this near their store! All the goods we had today for our fundraising were donated by our members’ generous parents. Thank you to the parents for supporting us!
Our Volunteers:
Jia Qi Liu (Angela): 2.5 hours
Susan Yang: 2.5 hours
Jennie Cheng: 2.5 hours
Anthony Lin: 2.5 hours
Sophia ShiHan You: 2.5 hours
Stephanie ShiRan You: 2.5 hours
Hong Hao Liu (Alfred): 2.5 hours
Colleen Chen: 2.5 hours
Darren Chen: 2.5 hours
Emily Lin: 2.5 hours
Eric Lin: 2.5 hours
Aaron Zeng (4th grade): 2.5 hours
Amberly Zeng: 2.5 hours
Aiden Lin: 2.5 hours
Brandon Lin: 2.5 hours
Velma Wu: 2.5 hours
Verina Wu: 2.5 hours
Yize Dong: 2.5 hours
Eric Yu: 1 hour
Xiangxi Yu: 1 hour
Report by Jia Qi Liu (Angela), Andy Chen, Jessica Lin, Susan Yang