CAS Project Event: Blind Date with a Book!!

Happy Valentine’s Day: The Blind Date With A Book Event!

On February 14th, 2020, my IB CAS Project, Blind Date with a Book, finally took place! I arrived with my mom and sister at the media center at around 7:50 AM as people crowded around the doors to enter for the event at 8:00 AM. Inside, I met up with Karolay and Mrs. Lawler around the pay station table in the library filled with my flyers and some balloons. Then, we took pictures as a group, with family, and with our Principal Mr. Brooks, surrounded by all our hard work of 172 wrapped, labeled, and decorated books and Valentine’s Day decorations!

And, At Long Last, It Begins! 

We opened the doors, and the crowd rushed in! People headed straight for the display and started reading the many organized choices. I sat with Karolay at the table as customers brought us their money to buy stacks of books. We received many complements and praise for our amazing event and cause that so many loved. 

My mom and sister were there as they saw what I had achieved with the help of so many great people, taking pictures, buying books, and going on and on about how proud they were of me. Mr. Brewer and Mrs. Hook also stopped by to buy some books; I walked the aisles with them and pointed out some good ones before taking pictures with them.

A Fabulous Crowd!

When school started, I had to go to math and Karolay had to do a project, but after that, we were both going to meet back up to work our CAS Project. When I returned, before Karolay got back, so many books had already been purchased! Four aisles had turned into two! Mrs. Lawler and I cleaned up the empty two aisles and continued taking pictures and money as more people came in; Ms. Mason and Ms. Hibbard also stopped by to say hello and buy books.

For the rest of the time, when we were all back together, my mom brought in more classes to buy some books. Other teachers brought in their classes as well as we kept selling what was left as it gradually dwindled down.

An Absolute Success!

In total, we made $170 to donate to the Ferst Foundation! I was so excited that I told Mr. Brewer, the IB coordinator, my teacher, and the Key Club supervisor, of what we accomplished, and out of the blue, him and two of my IB friends who are Key Club leaders surprised us with having Key Club match the amount we had raised! I now had a thrilling total of $340 to donate to the Ferst Foundation, and they don’t even know it!

It was so incredible to have everything come to together and be an absolute success, our very own Trojan Times Newspaper and School Superintendent Dr. Albertus honoring and advertising the event! We cleaned up our decorations and took home the balloons as all the hard work was finally over in a beautiful and rewarding way! We then gathered up all the money and wrote a check to mail to our local Ferst Foundation.

A Beautiful & Rewarding Experience 

Overall, I am so thankful for all the help I received over the weeks and weeks of receiving donations, gathering supplies, figuring out how to go about the project, wrapping, describing, embellishing, organizing, and Valentine’s Day decorating. It took many outside club meetings, independent studies, school days, afternoons, and long nights to complete this project, and I’m so, so grateful that it turned out so brilliantly. I hope that some of the IB juniors will continue on this event for their CAS Project next year, and if I were to give advice about or change anything, it would be to try and get even more donated books, make the time between 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM, and to get books in some different languages.

This project helped me to learn how to successfully advertise and appreciate well-rounded internal and external collaboration as I called upon my peers and mentors and family to help. I’m overjoyed that I was able to be a Knowledgeable, Open-Minded, Caring, Balanced, and Principled Inquirer, Thinker, and Communicating Risk-Taker during this whole experience, and now that it is over, I love being able to Reflect on this rewarding IB CAS Project!