[todeen]

This falls under: it takes a village to raise a child.

My 10yo son just went through fundraising for hockey. The Association vomited multiple selling opportunities on us at once: Xmas wreaths, discount hockey tickets, and raffle tickets. We told our son that hockey is too expensive for us to cover all of the various costs, so if he wants to play hockey year after year he needs to take fundraising serious. This was his first experience fundraising, he has never done Boy Scouts, or Camp Fire, or anything like that.

He ended up raising about $1300. $200 were anonymous donations; some of the anonymous donations included a comment like, "He's doing a great job," or "I'm glad you're teaching him to do sales." Lots of positive vibes. Many people talked to him about their experiences with youth hockey.

Anyway, he has been attending goalie clinic; they have a gear closet, but that doesn't include masks or sticks. So he has been practicing with his regular helmet. I've been waiting for a puck to hit him in the Adam's apple. After fundraising, we went down to the hockey shop and, with the money he raised from his hard work, he bought a goalie mask and goalie stick. He was very proud!

I'm hoping that he has learned a lesson about the rewards of working hard.