Grace McAdory

Mrs. Corbett

Senior Project

April 9, 2012

Senior Project Speech

Growing up in a Christian home, I have always been taught to spread the love of Jesus

Christ to anyone and everyone. From a young age, I learned the importance and potential of

being a motivated Christian, and I realized the impact I could make on others. I started attending

North Point Community Church the summer going into my freshman year of high school, and I

continue to attend to this day. I joined the youth ministry offered by the church called “Inside

Out;” I made lifetime friends and developed a powerful relationship with Jesus Christ. As I

matured throughout high school, I came to the conclusion that I needed to broaden my spectrum

of spreading God’s love. With this experience in mind, I decided to fundraise for a mission trip

to El Salvador for my senior project. What is the one key component a person needs to fund a

mission trip? Money. To promote and raise money for my trip, I created “Cookies by Grace.”

GlobalX is a worldwide association of North Point Ministries Incorporated. The company

holds partnerships with thirteen countries around the world in order to spread the values of

leading people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I had to research these values,

principals, and requirements for GlobalX mission trips before ultimately deciding on which trip

to attend. The organization provides opportunities for people to serve in various locations such as

Brazil, Cambodia, East Asia, El Salvador, Estonia, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Haiti,

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Macedonia, Venezuela, and more for ministry practices. I learned that when choosing what

country to attend, I had to keep in mind what I could mentally, skillfully, and physically handle. I

chose El Salvador because the bulk of the work that goes on during that trip is connecting with

orphans that have been abused and abandoned at a very young age. I am very passionate about

working with children. A team of fourteen students and I will be working with the La Casa de mi

Padre Orphanage to provide the children with passionate devotions, prayer time, crafts, and

ultimately attempting to connect them with Christ. Being passionate about reaching out to people

regarding Christ, I look forward to pursuing my dream of being a communication director for

missions as a future career. The fundraising and work I did throughout my entire senior project

are actions I would have to perform on a regular basis in my day to day job as a communication

director.

Throughout the process of my senior project I became very educated in the marketing

industry. The product for my senior project was my “Cookies by Grace” cookies as well as the

money I would be raising by selling the cookies for my mission trip. I chose the method of

baking for fundraising because I enjoy baking and I wanted to come up with a creative way to

raise money. My project facilitator, Dawn Podicf, is extremely skilled in the marketing/business

industry and also in the food industry. The healthcare science teacher, Mr. Peacock, at

Creekview informed me of her skills, and offered me her number. She has owned her own café

know as The Carriage House for eight years, and throughout those eight years she took many

business classes in order to further educate herself on how to run a successful business. Those

qualities were exactly what I was looking for in a facilitator for my project. Dawn and I both

agreed that we would handle the tactics of selling my cookies by presenting them in the front

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counter of her store near the register. I put individual bags of my cookies in a basket, and

displayed a sign explaining to people what the purpose of selling them was. It informed people

that the delicious homemade “cookies by grace” were being sold as a fundraising technique for a

high school mission trip. Dawn and I also agreed that it would be wise for me to do plenty of

fundraising on my own; she told me that she would give me advice and tips along the way. After

the first meeting between Dawn and I, it was time to buy the ingredients and get started.

The first step was buying the ingredients. I decided to buy everything in bulk, that way I

knew I would not run out, and I would have enough to use throughout the entire process of my

senior project. The total amount of all my ingredients came out to be about $25. I also had to

take into consideration how much the bags I would be putting the cookies in would cost, and also

any other materials I would need. I bought the bags sporadically throughout my project, because

I wanted them to have decorations for different seasons. The total cost of the bags at the end of

my project was $10. Dawn taught me that this is part of the business process. She explained that

in order to make a profit, I would have to make the $35 I spent on materials back, and then

expect to make more for fundraising. After I got all my ingredients and necessities together, it

was time to start baking.

The recipe for my cookies consisted of flour, baking soda, brown sugar, white sugar,

butter, vanilla, milk chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips. The cookies were cooked at a

degree of 350 in a convection oven for 13 minutes. I also had a special cookie cake that I made

during the month of December for the holidays. I offered people that were interested for me to

write any festive saying on the cake such as “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.” The

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cookie cakes were ten dollars per cake and were available to be ordered at any time. The first

batch of cookies I made was in November. The process I came up with was, I would bake the

cookies, and deliver them to Dawn’s home to be taken to The Carriage House. The first batch

unfortunately did not sell as well as planned. I only made $20 throughout the month of

November before the cookies became too old and had to be thrown out. After that, I attended a

Christmas party at my mom’s work. She works with senior citizens at the Lodge at Bridge Mill. I

spent the entire day selling my cookies and educating people on what the cause was. This day

was very successful; I sold about $120 worth of cookies. After December, I delivered her two

separate sets of cookies. The money I raised in February, for Valentine’s Day, and April, for

Easter, was a total of $52.

The obstacles I faced throughout my senior project varied. There were problems getting

the recipe just right because at times the cookies would not rise enough or taste right. There were

also problems involving my marketing strategies. I especially got frustrated in November when

my cookies wouldn’t sell as well as I wanted them too. The obstacles, however, did not interfere

with my goals of becoming a communication director. I will take many business and marketing

classes as well as theological classes in college to prepare myself for my future career. I will also

be majoring in communication.

I learned many things throughout the process of my senior project. My organizational

skills improved greatly because in the business world, there is no room for procrastination or

slacking. Fundraising and working diligently to raise money helped me prepare for my future

career as a missionary because a missionary’s job consists of mostly raising money for their

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trips. I learned useful skills involving business and marketing. I now know how to effectively

sell items in order to raise money for a good cause. The total amount of money I raised for my

trip is $200. This amount will sufficiently help me when paying for my mission trip to El

Salvador. I am extremely excited to go to El Salvador this summer, and am very thankful that I

chose this as my senior project. Thank you for your time. Are there any questions?