This Wednesday, I’ll be depositing all the fundraised money from chocolates for those that have handed in money to us so far. By the time you read this, those who have handed money in will have an email briefly indicating how much money we have received and how much of that is the profit from the chocolates. Please check this matches what you believe it should be, and if I don’t hear back from you by Wednesday, I’ll assume all is good.

If you still have chocolates and/or monies, that’s fine as we’ll do this again later.

I’m happy to get more chocolates if people would like to sell them – I just don’t want to get too many in one go if they won’t sell. If you would like some more to sell, please get in touch and let me know how many boxes and what type of chocolates by the end of the week and we’ll get some in.

Well done everyone with your fundraising so far!!!!

We would suggest initiating contact with a doctor as soon as practical if you haven’t done so already in regards to vaccination requirements for Cambodia. Some particular vaccinations are required to be given over a period of time and you may not be able to finish the cycle if you leave it too soon before we leave.

Parents/guardians are responsible for ensuring that students are appropriately vaccinated based on advice from a doctor. As a school, we are not in a position to give such medical advice, however a number of useful links below may provide you with some information that you may wish to consider discussing with your doctor.

A doctor will generally want to know where and when you are travelling, and for our trip, you can advise them that we will be predominantly in Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap; we won’t be staying in rural areas.

The following links may be of use to you….

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) advice on health overseas http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/tips/health.html

World Health Organisation information on Cambodia
http://www.who.int/countries/khm/en/

The Travel Doctor
A guide to vaccinations to consider for Cambodia (they also based in Perth city, and are a great place to get advice and vaccinations as it is their core practice)
http://www.traveldoctor.com.au/Page/Knowledge-Hub/Destination-fact-sheets/cambodia

Thanks to everyone who could make it last night 🙂 Was awesome to catch up with everyone in the same place at the same time and find out a bit about everyone.

As a follow-up or for those who couldn’t make it, below is a quick summary of some of the things we touched on over dinner…

• Passports – Most have provided a scanned copy already; for those who have or will be getting new passports soon, can you please scan and email (or take a photo and email/message) me a copy when you can.
• Vaccinations – If you haven’t got onto finding out about vaccinations, now is a good time. I’ll do a separate post on this shortly.
• Flights – Am waiting on a revised quote but at this stage we are looking at flying Jet Star, departing around midnight on the 6th Jan. We will have a stop-over in Singapore both to and from Australia. More details to come once I’ve confirmed our booking.
• Chocolate money – If you have sold any complete boxes of chocolates, can you please bring the money in over the next few days. By the end of the week, I’ll email anyone who has handed money in, and let you know how much is profit etc and if you’re happy with the figures I’ll look at loading the amounts onto your respective EDH account early next week.
• Fundraising – We didn’t get to chat about this, but if you are still keen to do a group fundraiser, especially if you need some more money in your EDH account, then both Head of Primary School’s (Carramar and Duncraig) are keen to hear from you for a fundraiser idea that we can run at each campus. Only want to do this if enough of you want to do it, but you have the support and approval…just need your ideas and enthusiasm.
• Instalment – Still a few weeks off yet, but just to keep in the back of your mind that the next instalment deposit of $500 is due on 1st September
• DarkLight – For a bit of fun we thought we would organise a couple of games of Laser tag at DarkLight in Joondalup one Saturday night. At this stage we’re looking at around week 9 providing that there aren’t any conflicting school events on then. Will post exact date once we have worked it out and we can then book the place out. Check out their website if you haven’t been there before – http://www.darklight.com.au/
• Cultural Awareness and Travel Preparation – As a team, we really want to place a priority on ensuring that you are all prepared as best you can be for not only traveling internationally, but being immersed in culture far different from ours. In support of this, we are conducting a few sessions over the next few months to prepare you and give you an insight into the culture you will be entering into. Shortly, I will do a separate blog post regarding dates and what we will be covering.
• T-Shirt designs – Last night there were a couple of t-shirt designs floating around, and some more designs which Rowena and Kirby have been working on. These are also on the Facebook group which I believe most people were added to last night. Feel free to give your feedback on them and once there are a couple of possible options, we will decide on which one we will go with and go about getting the t-shirts printed for us…nice work so far!!

That’s about it for the time being. Will post more details soon….

/Mr Belson

 

Hey everyone!!!! Hope you all had a great term break and got a chance to chill out a bit and or do what you enjoy.

We are looking at meeting as a whole team (all 24 of us) down at Hillary’s Boat Harbour after school so all of you can meet everyone else. Thought it would be nice to have dinner altogether and have a bit of a chat about the trip. At this stage we are looking at Grill’d for dinner, however if some people don’t like or can’t eat there, then there are plenty of places to choose around there. So far the plan is….

• Date: Monday 4th August
• Time: 4pm – 6:30pm
• Where: Meet near Grill’d @ Hillary’s Boat Harbour
• Cost: There is no set cost, rather that students will need to bring money to cover the cost of their dinner. The menu can be viewed online (http://www.grilld.com.au/menu/western-australia/) which will give an indication of prices
• Getting there: As Carramar students are a little further away and it might be difficult to get down to Hillary’s by 4pm for some, Mr Kirby & myself are able to give students a lift down there after school in our own cars at no expense to anyone…however, if students wish to do this, we need for your parent or guardian to email Mr Belson (dave.belson@ststephens.wa.edu.au) and indicate that they give consent for you to travel in our private vehicle on this occasion. If any Duncraig students are stuck to get down there, the same process applies, only that Miss Young will be the one providing a lift.
• Getting home: All students will need to organise their own transport home from Hillary’s at around 6:30pm as we are unable to take people home.
• Attire: No need to wear school uniform, so feel free to bring a change of clothes to get into after school

If anyone envisages that they won’t be able to make it then or has any questions or issues, please let me know asap.

Look forward to catching up with everyone soon…

Hey everyone,

Really great to see so many of you engaging with fundraising and donations in such a big way! Absolutely awesome!! 🙂

We would like to have a brief fundraising meeting before the term break and propose having one this week.

Agenda will be:

– More chocolates are coming so if you haven’t grabbed any, here is your chance to get some before the break!
– Discuss some strategies to help those who are finding it hard to get fundraising underway. Remember we are all going as a team and it would be awesome to see people helping other during the journey. I know fundraising isn’t everyone’s strong point, but together we will nail it!
– Is there still interest in running that games evening for the primary school kids next term?
– Ideas for a whole team catch up next term where we can all go do something together as a group?

The meeting will be held in the IT office at each respective campus as that’s where the chocolates are.

Carramar – Thursday 26th @ lunch time
Duncraig – Friday 27th @ lunch time

Bring your lunch and please remind others that may not read this or who may get distracted on the day and miss it.

Thanks everyone for your commitment and work – it’s going to be so worth it in a few months…

Hey guys,

A few of you have already sold a bunch of chocolates already – awesome!

A couple of quick points regarding the chocolates…

1. When you have sold a whole box, please hand in the entire money in its envelope with your name, amount and which type of chocolates you sold (different chocolates have different prices so I need to know how much is actual profit). Check how much our buy price is on the fundraising.com.au website if you want to calculate how much profit each box is making you.
2. Keep a tally yourself of how much you have handed in, although I’ll be keeping one for everyone.
3. Once all the chocolates have been sold, I’ll let everyone know how much I have received in total for them, and if your happy I have the numbers right then I’ll just load that onto your EDH account so it’s easier for everyone.

p.s Duncraig have run out of boxes as of today, so I’ll bring some more down from Carramar on Friday afternoon. 

If you would like me to order more boxes so you can no nuts selling them in the holidays, please let me know by Monday and I’ll order some more…just tell me what types (our minimum order is 16 boxes).

If you haven’t grabbed any chocolates yet, please do so asap as we will just hand them out to whoever is selling them 🙂

Keep up the good work!!

 

I need to congratulate Caitlin, Kirby and Michael!!!

Today they undertook a bake sale as a fundraiser in their homeroom and raised $333.50

Awesome effort guys. Really great to see your initiative and enthusiasm.Well done to everyone else who has been raising money from all over the place too – don’t think it’s going unnoticed 🙂

For those who are finding it hard to get started, have a chat with a couple of other people in the team from your campus and help each other fund raise. It’s more fun with other people, and it’s less work when it’s shared 🙂

If you haven’t sent your Everyday Hero link out yet, jump on your Facebook friends list and start PMing some of your family and friends. I started last night and it’s already paid off! Take the time to write something that will make them understand the cause, and the effort will be worth it. Don’t only send to people you think will donate as you never know…send to anyone you can.

Don’t forget to put some thought into our group fundraiser activity and contribute to the planning too. It will be an awesome chance for all of us to work as a team and for everyone to bank some fundraising $$ towards your target.

G’day guys…as Miss Young posted earlier, the chocolates have now arrived!!

For those that haven’t grabbed any yet, next week is your chance.

I will be away from Mon-Wed so you will need to organise with Mr Kirby or Miss Young at your respective campus to pick up a box on these days. Lunchtime, before or after school would generally be a good time to do so.

The recommended retail price (RRP) for the chocolates are written on the side of each box. Where there are a boxes of the same chocolates (not mixed), I’d suggest coming in with someone else and swapping the chocolates around so you each have a mix in your box. It doesn’t matter which chocolates you take, so long as all the chocolates in the box are of the same value.

Feel free to email one of us to organise picking up a box or 2 of chocolates…

• Miss Young – bianca.young@ststephens.wa.edu.au
• Mr Kirby – matt.kirby@ststephens.wa.edu.au
• Mr Belson – dave.belson@ststephens.wa.edu.au

I have printed out a few little signs that you can stick on your box to explain the cause you are selling them for (and indicate the price to your customer). Ask one of us about this when you get your box(es). Alternatively I have uploaded the templates I put together if you would like to download and personalise the sign (add your name etc), or to simply print out your own if you want one. Click the respective links below..

Chocolate Fundraising Label – $1.00

Chocolate Fundraising Label – $2.00

Chocolate Fundraising Label – $2.50

Ask you parents to take a box to work, take them around a sporting event you attend or see if your church/club group will support you in selling them

All the best 🙂

/Mr Belson

 

 

Hi Cambodia crusaders,

Your chocolates have arrived at school. If you want to pick them up for the weekend, please come and see me straight after the bell at the end of the day. If you get this before lunchtime, you can come and check if I have them then as well.

Good Luck!

There was a good up-take of running  a games evening with primary school students, and at this stage Carramar head of Primary is supportive of this, and I’ve spoke informally with Duncraig deputy about it (yet to meet with head of Primary) to gauge their uptake on running something similar at Duncraig too.

This would be a great opportunity for you to put together and run a program and think about logistics of how it will operate, what food we can offer and a chance for you to meet your fellow team members from the other respective campus.

We need to get a proposal together (games, times, food, outline of how it will run) so to facilitate this I’ve setup a collaborative document which everyone can access and add to. This will be much easier than following post comments etc. We need to get this proposal done asap so we have time to organise and promote the event well.

Please lend some thought to how you would like to run this event and add your input to the Google Doc at the following link by Monday 16th – http://goo.gl/lWT1AE

We look forward to seeing what you come up with…