Business

Speaking and
Writing

Boys and Girls

Club Book Drive
Wednesday, April
2nd, 2014

Jake Brock, Brooke Dittmer, Dylan Humpal,

Jill Leibforth, Conor Ryan

Flooding with knowledge

Table of Content
Meet the Team 3
Boys and Girl Club Background .. 4
Timeline of Communication .... 5
Executive Summary...7
Event .... 6
SWOT Analysis ... 7
Conclusion .. 8
Recommendations 9
Meeting times .10
Emails . 11
Budgets .. 12
Additional information .. 13

Meet The Team

Jill Leibforth:
Jake Brock:

Sport management/Marketing major

Sophomore
Involved in: Mens Basketball, Track and Field
Favorite childrens book:
The Hatchet

Marketing major

Junior
Involved in: Womens Soccer
Favorite childrens book:
Go, Dog. Go!

Team Role- Book collector,

fundraising

Team Role- Leader, organized

events, organized meetings

Brooke Dittmer:

Accounting major

Junior

Involved in: Honkamp Krueger

internship
Favorite Childrens book: The
Napping House

Team Role- Kept contact with facilitator, Molly Casey

Dylan Humpal:
Business management/ Marketing major

Sophomore

Involved in: Mens Basketball

Favorite childrens book:

Captain Underpants Series

Team Role- Fundraising, communication with Loras athletic

director.

Conor Ryan:

Marketing major

Junior
Involved in: Intramural soccer, Chess club
Favorite childrens book:
The Magic Tree House Series

Team Role- Book collector,

fundraising

Molly Casey:

Coordinator of department
of activities and special
events at Boys and Girls
Club

Favorite childrens book:

Boys & Girls Club Background

The Boys & Girls Club had
been in the works since 1860
in Hartford, Connecticut when
three women recognized a
need to get young men off the
streets. Several other similar
clubs arose across America
and eventually became an official organization in 1906 with
the affiliation of several boys
clubs. The club expanded as
the time went on and, after a
series of name changes
throughout the 20th century,
became The Boys & Girls
Clubs of America in 1990.
Since then, the club

The main foundation of values

in the Boys & Girls club is
building character. The Club
believes that developing a solid
structure of character with
faith and morals is essential to
future success. Many of the
children who attended the
Boys & Girls Club have retained values that helped them
achieve worldwide success.
Along with that, there have
been handfuls of celebrities
who passed through the Club
(see below) and may not have
been as successful without it.
The Clubs can be

History Timeline

1860 Mary Goodwin,

Alice Goodwin, and Elizabeth Hammersly contemplate ideas for a way to
get boys off the streets.
1931- Boys Club Federation of America becomes
Boys Clubs of America.

Famous Alumni

Michael Jordan

Muhammad Ali

Jerry Jones

Shaun White

Bill Cosby

Nick Cannon

Shaquille O'Neal

The Good Will Club in Hartford, Connecticut

(1900)

1990- Girls are recognized

as part of the cause, the
name is officially changed
to Boys & Girls Clubs of
America.

Helping Kids Reach their full potential for

over 150 years.

I was there with so many dreams. I

learned to be a leader and not a
follower. I wanted to be Dr. J and play
in the NBA. I did both- Shaquille Shaq
O'Neal on the Boys & Girls Club

http://www.bgca.org/whoweare/
Pages/History.aspx

Timeline of Communication
On the first day of class we were carefully formed into our team based on each team members strengths. Once the team of Justin Giacotto, Jake Brock, Brooke Dittmer, Jill Leibforth, Dylan
Humpal, and Conor Ryan were formed the next step was coming up with an idea for the project.
The team quickly decided that doing something for the Boys and Girls Club of Dubuque would be a
good idea. That day we received confirmation from Mary Lynn Neuhaus that doing the Boys and
Girls Club would be acceptable. From there we had to come up with an idea to do something for
the club.
The first bump in the road came when Justin Giacotto, who was emerging as the team leader, dropped the class. To overcome this our team knew we needed to get together and first come
up with an idea for the Boys and Girls Club. After calling the Dubuque Boys and Girls Club we
were directed to a line for activities and special events. Molly Casey was the woman at the other
end of this line and she is who became our facilitator. Through phone calls and emails we set up a
meeting with Molly on Tuesday February 25th at 2:00 PM. At this meeting she informed us that the
club had recently experience a flood and their tutor room and many of the childrens books were
damaged. This gave us the idea of doing a book drive to replace the lost books. Through more
talking we learned that every Wednesday the club reads to the kids so we decided that we would
raise books and bring them down on a Wednesday to make the unveiling of the new tutor room
and the addition of the new books a whole event.
Upon getting approval on our proposal from Mary Lynn Neuhaus we then got to work on
raising books and money. On Thursday March 13th Conor went to Beckman Hall going door to
door asking for donations and was able to come up with $20. The rest of the team began trying to
raise books by word of mouth, asking family, friends, and professors. Also putting boxes in Hoffman Hall and the Library for kids to drop old books in. Our most successful form of getting books
was the word of mouth method as we were able to raise over 100 books by March 21st.
We also communicated with the other team in class doing a project for the Boys and Girls
Club. They were doing a basketball tournament to raise money for the Club, they decided that half
of their earnings would go to our group so we could use it helping the club. On March 25th we
received $30 from the team doing the basketball tournament. At this point we felt we had enough
books and also enough money.
Next came the planning of the event. We decided that we would do a fun competition with
the kids the day of the event. We bought posters so that each child could make a sign of why reading is fun. We also bought prizes for the winners. The shopping for the event took place on Sunday March 30th. To make this more fun for the kids we decided that one of our team members
should wear the Dewey mascot costume. On March 26th Dylan talked to the athletic director Bob
Quinn and asked if we could use the costume for the event. He said yes and we then felt our event
was all planned out.
On April 2nd we headed down to the club an hour early to set up and when the kids
showed up we executed our plans as we had hoped. Everything went well and both the kids and
our team had a great time. Following the event we sent Molly Casey a thank you note on April 8th
to let her know how much we appreciated the help she was and for letting us do this for the kids.
Also letting her know how much we enjoyed helping the kids. We had a concluding meeting with
Molly on May 7th to get a signature of approval and ask a few final questions. Also we wanted to
meet in person on this date to give Molly a hand written thank you card. Because hand written is
the golden standard.

Executive Summary
Our team was given a task of completing a group service project a mere three months ago. As we
met together as a team and brought in our different personalities, we decided to accomplish our group
event by storming, norming, performing, and then adjourning. Our team consisted of a wide variety of
personalities, but all blended well and it was already evident in the idea stage of our project. Our group
consisting of Jake, Brooke, Jill, Conor, and Dylan, wanted to do something larger than the Loras community, and the Boys and Girls Club idea shined through. While it seemed like we were on a roll with plenty
of time to spare, there were many bumps along the way that slowed us down.
As a team we started with struggles from day one of just storming. Our original team leader had
dropped out of the class within a week due to undisclosed reasons. With this, the team now not only
had to find an idea, but also a new leader. While storming for ideas, our group came up with several
plans such as hosting a St. Pattys arts and crafts night with the kids. After attempting to confirm with
Professor Neuhaus, we learned it was not a large enough project and we understood we needed to have
higher goals with our service.
After struggling with a decision our group could agree on, we decided to take it on from a different angle. We contacted our facilitator, Molly Casey, and met with her down at the club. While down
there, we bounced different ideas off of each other and finally hit the jackpot. Molly told us how they recently had a flood that damaged the tutor room and destroyed about 50 books as well. We all agreed
how great of an idea it would be to have a book drive to raise the books, and then also once the new
tutor room was finished, would have an afternoon of reading the new books with the kids. Not only was
the meeting a success in finding our event, but it also brought out our new leader. Jake had now assumed
the leader role and agreed to keep in touch with Molly throughout the process of the drive and leading
up to the date, April 2, where we would deliver the new books to the kids.
Now our task was to raise books and money. We originally were very worried about this, and
planned to raise well over $100 to buy books as well as supplies for the reading day. We quickly found
out that many people would be willing to donate books, and that fundraising for such a high budget was
really unnecessary. By spreading the word about our book drive, we were able to collect books from
employers, teachers, and fellow students that pushed us well over our original goal. While fundraising
money, we heard about the success another group had while going through residence halls and asking for
donations so we did the same. By doing this we raised $20 which is more than we expected. We also
quickly found out that another group was hosting a basketball tournament, and half of the money made
would go towards our groups funding for the club, this brought in $30. Jake and Dylan then went to the
local store and spent on $50 on materials such as prizes for games we would play, snacks and treats for
the kids as well for the afternoon of reading and activities.
On the day of the event, we hauled all the books down with us, but also brought another friend
along with us as well. The kids were surprised to see Dewey, our school mascot, walk through the doors
to spend some time with them. We then spent a couple hours with the kids as we held a contest as to
who could draw the best to show why reading is fun and we gave prizes to the top three posters. Along
with this we read the new books with them, and decorated the newly renovated room to make it an
even more fun environment for learning.
Throughout the building up process to the final deadline, we knew there would be lots of long
hours put into putting together a successful event. However after the day of the event, we all knew the
hard work paid off and our contributions were greatly appreciated by not only Molly, but the children of
the club as well.

Before the Event

One of the
damaged
walls in the
tutor room
due to the
flood at the
Boys and
Girls Club

One of the
book donation boxes
placed in
the library.
Another damaged wall due to the
flood.

Sophomore Bryce Kirk donates a book to the cause

Shopping cart full of prizes and supplies at the

dollar tree for the unveiling of the new books
and tutor room.

During the Event

The childrens
posters displayed
on the wall.

Third place winner of the poster

competition is
excited to receive
his prize of a Loras College football and bookmark.

The front table with posters and

prizes during the reading event at
the Boys and Girls Club.

Dewey reading with two girls from

the Dubuque Boys and Girls Club

Child From
the club
picking out a
book to read
from the
many we
raised and
brought
down

SWOT Analysis

Strengths
Different personalities
Everyone was accountable
Worked well with each other
Organized

Weakness

Different schedules

Lost original leader

Not enough advertising for boxes

Opportunities

help from Boys and Girls club 3 v 3

group

Support from Community

Kids were already in classroom when

we came to set up

Previous project examples

Kids that were acting up

Threats

Conclusions

Thank you card to Molly Casey

Signature of Approval
From this experience we
learned that you cannot take
things for granted. Helping
the kids was very humbling
for all of us and we truly enjoyed seeing them read the
books we raised. We adjourn from this project in
good spirits and hope to be
able to do more in the community as we grow.

Recommendations
Plan ahead
- Make backup plans
Be open to suggestions
- From facilitator, professors, classmates
Stay in touch with facilitator
Stay organized
- Record as much as possible
Flexibility
- Be willing to work around others
schedules
Adaptability
- Willing to change when needed
Stay positive & have fun

Meetings & Emails

2/5/14
-Decided on Boys and Girls Club for our project
2/24/14
-Made initial contact with facilitator Molly Casey to set up meeting

From: Jake.Brock@loras.edu
To: mollyecasey@msn.com
CC: Dylan.Humpal@loras.edu; Brooke.Dittmer@loras.edu; Jill.Leibforth@loras.edu; Conor.Ryan@loras.edu
Subject: Team Project event
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 20:48:10 +0000
Hello Ms. Casey,
Sorry we have not been able to reach you, we must have been dialing a wrong number or calling at bad times. I was wondering
when you would be available to talk about a potential event we could help in planning for the kids. If possible we would like to
have the details sorted out by early next week. If you feel we could figure things out over the phone that would be great but if
not a couple of our team members, we have five total, might be able to come down and talk to you in person. Please let me know
what you feel works best.
Thanks,
Jake T. Brock
Hello! The best time to meet with me would be Monday- Friday between the hours of 1-3 p.m.
Thanks,
Molly

2/25/14
-Met with Molly Casey to discuss possible ideas for a project
-Decided on doing a book drive for the Boys and Girls Club
2/26/14
-Proposal made during group meeting in library
2/27/14
-Proposal approved by Mary Lynn Neuhaus
3/6/14
-Guest speaker Maggie Baker gave our group many ideas in class as for who to get in contact with for
help fundraising
-Our team met after class to discuss who we would further pursue for help
-Sent out emails to Alli Settani and Tim Nass in hopes of getting help from other students on campus.
-Sent thank you to Maggie Baker for the tips

Meetings & Emails

Hello Ms. Baker,
Thank you for getting me connected with Tim, I will definitely look to make contact with him. Also thank you for taking the time to
come into our class today and talk to us. I thought it was very helpful and all the ideas and names you gave me will most definitely
benefit our service project.
Thank you again,
Jake
From: Maggie W. Baker
Sent: Thursday, March 6, 2014 12:15 PM
To: Jake T. Brock
Cc: Timothy R. Nass
Subject: book drives
Hi Jake,
It was really exciting to hear about your plans for a book drive with the Boys & Girls Club in Dubuque, in your course with Professor
Mary Lynn Neuhaus this morning!
I wanted to connect you with another student with whom I also communicated about service projects focused on literacy and book
drives. Tim Nass and a few of his classmates from the Honors Program are exploring service focused on book drives too, so I wanted
to connect the two of you about this. I copied Tim on this email, so he knows you may reach out to him about this.
Thanks.
Maggie Baker

-Brainstormed ideas to make event more fun, decision to try to borrow Dewey costume from Bob
Quinn was made
-First official progress report made and sent to Mary Lynn Neuhaus
Progress Report as of March 6, 2014
Currently we are still in the fundraising stage of our project. We have split up tasks and
each member of the team has a job to do for the next week. Jake is getting in contact with people
on campus such as Alli Settanni of eDUcation, and Tim Nass of the honors program as suggested by
Maggie Baker to help in facilitating the book drive and possibly setting up little libraries for book
donations around campus. Brooke is talking to local businesses and families about donating either
old books, or even cash donations. Dylan is getting in contact with Bob Quinn the athletic director
here at Loras to see if we will be able to borrow the Dewey mascot costume for our event.
Conor will be going door to door in Beckman Hall to try and raise funds to buy books with. And
Jill is getting in contact with various professors on campus, specifically the education department in
hopes that they will help in getting the word out that we are doing a book drive and this way we
will get some possible donations or even more ideas from talking with these professors.

Meetings & Emails

3/13/14
-Update meeting
-Many books coming from Jills family
-cash balance from fundraising was at $20 from Conor going through Beckman hall
3/19/14
-Meeting in library to update and brainstorm for event
-Donation boxes in place
-Permission to borrow Dewey mascot costume was granted
-Set schedule for final meeting dates before event
-Called Molly to asked for projected number of kids at event to buy supplies accordingly
3/25/14
-Book tally reached over 100
-Met with Boys and Girls Club 3 on 3 team to receive their donation of $30 from their tournament
-Brief meeting with team to discuss updates
-Reminder of final meeting before event
3/31/14
-Meeting in library to finalize plans for event and tally up donations
-Books reached a total tally of 186
-Budget reached total tally of $50.38
-Dewey costume received
-Activities for event planned
4/1/14
-Supplies bought
-Dollar tree for poster boards, decorations, and half of the prizes
-Bought water bottle from Loras College Duhawk Market for first place prize winner
-Bought second place prize Loras football from Loras College Bookstore
-Packed up books, prizes, and supplies for the event the next day
4/2/14
-Met outside Hoffman Hall at 2 PM before going down to Boys and Girls Club for event
-Executed very successful event at the Boys and Girls Club with the children
4/8/14
-Post event meeting
-Thank you email written and sent to Molly Casey
-Planned to present on March presentation date, because our event was second day of April

Meetings & Emails

It was great! Thanks to all of you for your hard work and efforts! It was a big success!
Molly
On Apr 8, 2014, at 1:14 PM, "Jake T. Brock" <Jake.Brock@loras.edu> wrote:
Good Afternoon Molly,
I would just like to thank you for letting us come down and do the event with the kids last week. We had a good time doing the activity and seeing the kids enjoy the books we brought. Also would like to thank you for all the help you were for this project, with information and letting us help. We hope you and the kids thought it was as successful as we did.
Thank you again,
Jake T. Brock

-Wrote up paragraph summary on event for Mary Lynn Neuhaus to be used in an article
-Another progress report written and sent in
Progress Report as of April 8th, 2014
We have completed our event for the project last week and now that portion is over. We ended up raising
over 180 books which was very good considering our goal was to reach only 50. The 30 dollars that the 3 on 3 team
gave us was used in buying supplies for the event and prizes for the kids. The day of the event we all went down as
planned and ended up getting more kids than we expected, we had over 30. We started by doing a poster competition
and gave a prize to the kids who drew the best three posters explaining why reading is fun. Then the kids got to pick one
of the new books and read with Dewey as Dylan was dressed in the Dewey the Duhawk costume. As for now we have
decided to look to present on the March date because our event was only the second day of April and we feel we will be
ready by then. Our team plans to meet this Thursday night the 10th to discuss our tasks for over spring break so that
when we come back to campus putting the booklet together will be easier. From there we will begin to put our presentation together. A thank you email to Molly Casey, our facilitator, has also been sent.

4/10/14
-Meeting in library to begin working on final parts of project
-Small tasks assigned to each member to be worked on over spring break
4/27/14
-Met in library to put together work over break
4/30/14
-Bulk of finishing work done in library
5/6/14
-Met to continue work on booklet, and other final steps to project
-Emailed Molly to set meeting time to get closing comments, and confirmation of our work
5/7/14
-Wrote up paragraph to have Molly sign, to confirm all the work we had done
-Met with Molly at Boys and Girls Club as a final meeting to get all remaining necessities
5/12/14
-Meeting to finalize all remaining work and practice presentation for the following day

BUDGET ($50.00)
The Boys & Girls
Club

PROJECTED BUDGET:
$300.00
ACTUAL BUDGET:
$50.00

Our original budget was projected to be $300.00 to cover

all costs of the event including poster supplies, prizes, and
books. We were expecting to spend roughly $5-$10 dollars per book purchased if we did not meet our fifty book
goal. We began brainstorming ways to raise money for our
event. One idea we came up with was a 3-on-3 basketball
tournament for the students, with a participation fee, to
raise money. We didnt raise as much as we had hoped,
but overall the tournament still contributed $30 to our
event. We also visited the dorms asking for donations and
students were more than willing to help, We raised a little
over $20 from the dorms. This was a surprise considering
college students usually have little money to spare. A little
disappointed after the fundraising efforts, we decided we
needed to sit down and reorganize our plan. Halfway
through our group meeting we realized that we would not
need the full $300.00. A large portion of that money was
to be set aside to buy books for the kids, however we
ended up collecting over 180 books from friends, family,
and students. We had such a great response in donations
from our networks that we did not need the extra funds
to purchase any extra books. This left us with over $50 to
buy poster paper, markers, and prizes for the winners.
The group felt a wave of relief once we came to the realization that we raised enough money to cover our expenses. Dylan and Jake took a trip to the Dollar Tree and the
Duhawk Market at Loras College to purchase poster paper and prizes for the kids. They spent all of the money
raised which worked out perfectly because we were not
short any money. It is possible if we went to more student
housing or professors that we could've raised more money to donate to the Boys & Girls Club.

Budget Analysis Chart

Projected Income

Projected
Books

$300

50

Projected Costs $50

Actual Income
Beckman Dorm

$20.38

Boys & Girls Club 3-on-3 Tournament

$30-

Total Income

$50.38

Actual Books

186

Actual Costs

$50.38

Our projected budget was

clearly different than our
actual income earned due
to us getting more book
donations than planned.
Either way the end result
was the same. We raised
more than enough books
and had enough of a budget to buy supplies and
prizes.
The 186 books our team raised all stacked up

Additional Documents

A hand written thank you note for our facilitator Molly Casey showing our appreciation for
all of her help throughout this project.

Additional Documents

A confirmation paragraph signed and dated by Molly Casey of the Dubuque Boys and Girls Club
confirming our teams work on this project

The Boys & Girls

Club

The project overall was a success, everyone involved got

something out of it. As a team we each got great satisfaction in being able to help the kids at the Boys and Girls
Club be able to read more books. The experience itself
was a great one. We hope that we can take what we
learned here and continue to do similar projects in helping

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB

BOOK DRIVE

Business Speaking
& Writing

the communities we live in.