Gifts mix fun, profit

During a brainstorming session three years ago, Nancy Frank, advisor of the Aktion Club of Scranton, Pennsylvania, came across a winner: The club would assemble dry cookie mixes in decorative containers and sell them for a holiday fundraiser. After the initial success, the club added dips, hot chocolate and other drinks, and one-dish meals, such as chili.

“I would definitely recommend this as a fundraiser to other clubs, but it is a tremendous amount of work,” Nancy says. “It was a great thing—you just have to have a lot of dedicated people who are willing to put in some extra time shopping and measuring out the ingredients.”

The best thing about it, Nancy says, is that just about all of her 29 club members participated in some way, from filling the containers to keeping the conversation going.

“The Aktion Club members really enjoyed it,” she says. “It was a lot of fun. A lot of laughs.”

The gift items were purchased for $2 each. The money went to the club’s various causes, including supporting a family in Kenya, an animal care association, Ronald McDonald House, and assisting the family of a premature child.