Here’s how to get plugged in:

1. Pull together a dream team of your friends that you want to raise with (and then eat with!) for our Family Feast. You can also join an existing team here.
2. Register your team on our Family Feast event page! Be sure to pick an appropriately awesome picture for your team – we will be judging you on this.
3. Set an overall  fundraising goal for your team. We suggest at least $100 per adult and $50 per youth on the team!
4. Let the fun(draising) begin! Check out our tips below for getting donations.
5. Come to the AGE UP Family Feast on June 8th and celebrate our success with delicious food cooked by the AGE UP food team!

This could be you.

Fundraising Tips and Tools!

Online fundraising:

Below is an email format you can use to ask your friends to support you. You can also link to your team fundraising page on facebook, twitter, or myspace (ha!) – just get the word out as much as you can!

Pro-tip: The more way that someone is asked to contribute, the more likely they are to do so.

——————————————-
Hi friend,

This month, I am excited to be supporting All Girl Everything Ultimate program in their Family Feast and Fundraiser. I am challenging myself to raise [$20] in [two weeks], and I would love to have your help to meet that goal. I am donating the first [$200].  

What’s AGE UP?

AGE UP is an after-school program based on Beacon Hill that bring girls together using  food, fun, and the sport of Ultimate frisbee! Each week, the girls in the program come together to make a healthy dinner, do a social justice workshop, and then play Ultimate together. AGE UP creates a strong sense of community for everyone involved, and gives the girls in the program countless opportunities for leadership development, skill building and out-of-control laughter.

What does AGE UP mean to me?

[this is the place where you get warm and fuzzy about why you love AGE UP!]

How will your support help AGE UP?

Your donation will allow AGE UP to continue offering this amazing free program to girls all over Seattle. This money will do directly to buying food, providing rides to and from the program and providing stipends to youth who are taking on major leadership roles in AGE UP. 

I am fundraising with a team of friends for AGE UP – check out our page and donate [here].  Thank you so much for your support! You are awesome!

Sincerely,
YOU
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The next great fundraising idea???

Off-line fundraising:

You know how to get your friends excited about something! Play to your strengths to raise money. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Host a small dinner, then spend a few minutes at the dinner explaining what AGE UP is and how your friends can give to your team
• Get together with your team to throw a house party or host a concert or open mic, and charge a fee at the door that goes to AGE UP
• Don’t be afraid to ask one-on-one! Take a friend or family-member out for coffee, and make a specific request about what you’d like them to give to your AGE UP team

Got questions? Do you have a really brilliant fundraising idea for AGE UP? Want someone to strategize about fundraising with? Email Jude at jude@allgirleverything.org, or give him a call at 206 718 2536.

No really. You’re the best ever.

Hi I’m Vanessa! This is also my first time writing a blog. Or co-writing a blog? Oh well. Robyn just left for a while to change for her basketball practice but I’ll recap the day we had from where she left off. A lady, Josephine, from Cathay Bank came in to talk to us after we did our usual check-in’s that consist of our names, preferred gender pronouns and what happened this week.

She was sweet and she had a lively smile. She presented a power point presentation called, “Planning Ahead and Saving Money – Basics to Banking.”

Each of the girls was given a handout to help follow along with the slides while the bank representative spoke to us.

OH, Robyn is back!

I’M BACK PEEPS! (Hana told me to say that, totally not me.) But I’ve been MIA for the past few- not few but a lot of Age ups ! Anyways today we talked about mula, money , “the greens” okay I lost other ways how to say money but you know what I mean. We talked about money management and how it could affect us if we don’t save money. As Vanessa talked about the Lady from the Cathay Bank there were two other ladies , named Paulette and Judy.We split in groups of 4 or 5 … we couldn’t have equal groups okay… And we helped this ‘imaginary’ or real who knows… student named Jasmine! Jasmine had abit of spending problems… so we had to help her. For example she spends 200 dollars at the mall each month! That’s crazy! So we had to cut her down on her money problem so she wouldn’t be in debt. Overall today taught us that be smart with your money! NEED VS. WANT. Put your money in banks!

 Okay, so any who I have to go now. The game of basketball is calling me! I hoped you liked my first blog post (and Vanessa). Byeee !

OH ! Almost forgot!AGE UP RETREAAT! YAAY! As you know winter sessions are ending and next week will be our last session … boo. But good news Age up retreat is gonna be awesome! Our top 2 choices are a 2-days of rock climbing on March 2-3 or camping-ish in Shannon’s cabins! ( Not technically hers but her parents…) but anyways both of them sound super fun and I hope I could go to them , hopefully basketball won’t interfere with that. Okay goodbye for now !

-Robyn and Vanessa

Meanwhile as some arrived, others sat down and enjoyed some freaking delicious food. Plenty of the girls went for seconds—I obviously went for seconds. I mean who wouldn’t? That salad and tortellini were as delicious as tiramisu from Tuta Bella. Y’all know you’d like to try some of our food prepared from our AGEUP staff.

But guess what? WE HAD ANOTHER GUEST. Their name is Julz “Lolo” Ignacio. Aside from a yummy dinner there was an artist in the room.  Julz sang an original song called “Sista Souldier.”  They were amazing, y’all! Like real talk, y’all should check out her YouTube account; Lolob0i.

Around 6:30 all the AGEUP girls headed to Rainier Vista to play some Ultimate Frisbee. It seems like the girls are having plenty of fun.  So let me stop typing and play with these awesome chicas. Adios!

-Izet

 Becky spoke on the issue of consent verses non-consent today to inform everyone about positive and safe ways to say yes and no to sexual related activities and other general situations that may go on in someone’s life. We went through many different kinds of birth controls and ideas on how to obtain a healthy and communicating relationship. With the ideas and comments we recorded and shared. We applied them to fun activities so that everyone can get involved and active in.

Many great ideas were shared on the topic but we decided the best way to show consent and non-consent is to simply just say “yes” and “no”. Overall today went really smoothly and everyone was open to questions and comments to those who spoke.

-Julie

We also had two special guests, Jennette and Marisa, along with Jude facilitating about the School to Prison Pipeline. As a group, we learned about a system that teens go through when entering middle school and before graduating from high school. We split into small groups, and discussed prison-related statements that Marisa read, holding up either a “true” or “false” sign to signify our answer. One of the statements was:

“The rise in incarceration is due to an increase in crime.”
Answer: False. U.S. incarceration rates have steadily risen for four decades.

After that activity, we watched a short video to get to know more about the School to Prison Pipeline, and how it works.

Throughout this session, I was really surprised and disappointed by how the system works. It made me realize many things, like the resources I have, and the good people I have in my community. There are many opportunities out there, and many obstacles can get in the way that could be life changing.

It was awesome writing a review for today, thanks for reading!

 The second part of the session we did an activity where Amanda or Gaby shared a scenario, such as, “I don’t have to worry about how I spend my money”, “I see my race represented on television”, or “I will be the first in my family to graduate high school” and if you related to it you moved to a specific spot in the room. The spots were ” Agree” , “IDK” and “Disagree”. It was an eye opener to many of us that our peers went into the groups they did. After each scenario, each group had time to discuss why they thought they belonged in that certain spot and then each spot would share with the larger group.

We all then had a chance to create our own scenarios. There where some funny ones and there was some serious ones, like “I am in my element when I am in school” and “I find my siblings annoying.” This activity brought the AGEUP girls closer just like every session we have.

 To end the night we got into our groups and discussed the future steps for our groups and enjoyed some hot cocoa. Stay tuned for next Wednesdays session!

Samiya

PS: Don’t forget to support AGEUP in the WFA fundraiser! http://www.catapult.org/project/transforming-girls%E2%80%99-futures-through-sports

Back to the can opener, today was a very productive day. We drew, wrote, and everything on paper! The first paper was orange, and we all drew a heart right in the middle. In the middle of the heart we wrote about what was in our heart. Positive things like: spontaneous, creative, strong, friends, and of course LOVE. On the outside, we wrote things that affected us that people thought about of us. Or you know media and the community. For girls examples are: to be skinny, long hair, quiet, and more woman like. On the boarder of our hearts, we had shields. The definition of shields in this situation being, what we used to get away from what was hurtful; things like eating a lot, not eating a lot, crying, and self-harm. Afterwards we ventured off into the back of the paper, where we did something like the heart but with us in the middle. We named people that we had in our lives that affected us positively and negatively; labeling them differently with different patterned lines. Squiggly, bold, dotted, name your line and you got it! Nevertheless, we all had fun talking about healthy and unhealthy relationships.

And what’s AGE UP without the Frisbee section? Only half the feelings a can opener can handle! To stay safe, we started out with warm ups. There was some serious sweating going on, but there also were some funny moments. The spider crawling, the slowmo karaoke style shuffling, you know~ Our leader for today, Shannon, taught us how to catch the Frisbee but also not have it for too long – how to move the disc quickly. I know what you’re thinking, HOW? Right? It’s simple, catch, and quickly throw it back. It was hardcore man, hardcore.

As one of participates today say, “Running, catching, breathing.” –Jena.

This has been Linda the 3rd year, with the help of Amy the 1st year reporting AGE UP the 7th session.
P.S. Theresa helped me take Frisbee photos, let’s hope her knee gets better everyone!

A great organization, The Women’s Funding Alliance, is hosting a fundraiser on AgeUP’s behalf. ‘Transforming Girl’s Future through Sports’ is trying to raise money for four programs and will match dollar for dollar up to $5,000, a potential for $10,000!!

http://www.catapult.org/project/transforming-girls%E2%80%99-futures-through-sports

“Women’s Funding Alliance is collaborating with four organizations–AGE UP, Girls on the Run of Puget Sound, Skate Like a Girl, and Somali Youth & Family Club–dedicated to building leadership through physical activity and sports. Each program offers a unique athletic opportunity ranging from running, skateboarding, soccer, to Ultimate Frisbee. Each program offers an innovative approach to inspiring self-esteem, leadership, and the confidence to make a difference.

By funding this collaborative effort you will expand the reach of these programs. Your investment ensures more girls have the opportunity to participate, reach their full potential, and change our world.”

Donate to support AGE UP, Girls on the Run, Skate Like a Girl, and Somali Youth and Family Club: http://www.catapult.org/project/transforming-girls%E2%80%99-futures-through-sports

Thanks for all the support!!! Please help us by sharing this with your family and friends. We wouldn’t be here without you!

After we finished our food and cleaned up, the woman who was running our work shop, Kriss, put us into a circle to play a game called Common Ground. To play, one player starts in the middle and says their name and “I have common ground with…” and they say something like, “people wearing blue jeans”, “people who drove here today”, or my favorites (even though I didn’t move), “people with awesome younger sisters.” If what the person in the middle said applies to you, you run to another spot in the circle but if you are too late, you get to be the next person in the middle. After we played this for a bit, Kriss would throw in questions like, “I have common ground with someone who knows a friend or relative with HIV.” Using that as a segway, we split up into other small 2-4 person groups to talk about a time we have been or ever seen someone being discriminated against. Talking about those times doesn’t feel that great since it brings up unhappy and sad memories.

Once we were done with that, we grouped up into four bigger groups to discuss and answer four questions: What is a stigma? What do your family or people you know think about HIV? What are some stereotypes about HIV? How are HIV stigmas started? Stereotypes influenced by mainstream culture and media were mentioned.

Following those discussions, Kriss decided to show us a clip about HIV. It had three people talk about being prosecuted for having HIV. One man was sentenced to 25 years in jail and had restrictions such as having no alcohol in the house, being home before midnight, and coming in for monthly polygraph tests. The video sparked outrage and realization within participants. We closed the workshop by sharing what we learned from the session.

After, we divided into our job groups. The facilitation group watched a particularly interesting video on body language. Amanda tripped over the speaker cord causing the speakers to crash to the ground. Wow AGE-UP girls seem to laugh at almost everything.
We ended the evening with a casual check-out before parting.

Alice and Amanda