Sweetie, the beloved mascot of Sweet Tomatoes, just kicked off a Great American Road Trip to help raise money for Boys & Girls Club of America! From Monday, May 3 through May 6, Sweetie will be making stops at restaurant locations around Florida.  In each tour city, 20 percent of the entire day’s sales will benefit the local chapters of the Boys & Girls Club! Plus, Sweetie will be making special guest appearances at select restaurant locations.

Sweetie will continue his journey across the country and make his way back to San Diego, to the Garden Fresh headquarters. Guests located outside one of the 12 tour stops can still celebrate May’s Great American Road Trip in stores and follow Sweetie online throughout his travels via a map that will show him moving across the country. The Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes blog will experience a full Sweetie takeover and he’ll also be keeping everyone updated through on-the-road tweets. Finally, the American Road Trip menu, Sweetie’s visits to the restaurants, activity sheets  will be available for download all month as well as different American Road Trip themed desktops and screensaver and fundraiser fliers at http://www.souplantation.com/roadtrip.

Dates and Places:

May 3rd – South Florida including Boca Raton, Coral Springs, Ft. Lauderdale,  Hollywood, Pembroke Pines,  Plantation and West Palm Beach

May 4th – West Florida including Ft. Myers, Naples and Sarasota

May 6hth – Orlando including Altamonte Springs, Lake Buena Vista, Orlando (E. Colonial) and Orlando (S. Kirkman)

You can also enjoy great food while Sweetie travels.

Road Trip Menu

I’ve been a volunteer at both of my daughter’s schools for a long time. (Remember that my oldest daughter is 23.)  While volunteering one of the most important things I’ve had to do is help raise money. Ah fundraisers, love them or hate them, they are necessary.

It gets to be more difficult each year as there every school comes up with new fundraising ideas. It’s either copy them, which can work, or totally backfire, or find something better, which is a lot of work. When you copy an idea you have time it right. Too soon and people won’t buy. Too late and you may not get a good deal from the company. Trying to find a new idea means research and getting a group to agree with you.

Most of the PTO fundraisers I’ve volunteered with are a lot of work, but can raise a lot of money too. It takes experience and effort to raise money for a non-profit. Working with your group and making use of their information is important. Finding a company that works well with your group personally and financially is key. How to raise money for your non-profit is something every member can learn to help increase funding for your group.

Brought to you by your friends at FastTrackFundraising.com

There’s more to the Better Basket project than the Blog Hop, where Hershey’s is donating $10 to the Children’s Miracle Network for every blog post that contains a virtual Easter Basket and follows particular rules. The other part of the project is making Easter Baskets and giving them to someone in need.

With a gift card provided by Hershey’s and Collective Bias I bought all of the items needed to create 3 Easter Baskets. I shopped at Walmart and found the baskets and decorative supplies.

Colorful Baskets

Cellophane Wrap

What’s a basket without toys?

Eggs and Chicks Chalk

Of course you need to have lots of Hershey’s Candy!

Hershey's Chocolate Bunnies

I found lots of yummy Hershey’s candy, including Reece’s Peanut Butter eggs, and plastic eggs filled with Hershey’s Kisses, and so much more. At home I gathered my family together to make the baskets. We had a lot of fun and knowing that they would be going to the Foster Parent Association Of Hernando and a local Title One elementary school made it even better.

We began with an assembly line:

Assembly Line

Worked together

Putting The Candy In

Checked it out

Filled Basket

The Sammi Test of Approval

Added the finishing touches

Tying Loose Ends

‘Then showed off the results

Beautiful Better Baskets

We added soaps, shampoo, toothbrushes and toys for families for the Foster Family group and music CDs and school supplies to the elementary school. That added to the surprise!

Giving just for the sake of it is something my family and I don’t do enough. Since taking part in the Better Basket project, we are thinking of other activities we can do. One thing that we thought of is to pay for a child that can’t afford an upcoming field trip at my daughter’s school. What are some things that you can do to pay it forward?

Disclosure: I was given a gift card from Hershey’s and Collective Bias to purchase the supplies for these Easter Baskets.

Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop is a pay it forward movement. This blog hop, where you’ll give a virtual Easter Basket to a fellow blogger and ask them to include it in their post, Hershey’s will donate $10 to Children’s Miracle Network for each post. Hershey’s is continuing its legacy of giving. You can add a blurb about a random act of kindness, paying it forward, etc. if you wish too.

I’m passing my virtual Easter Basket to those friends that I emailed and to anyone who wishes to take it. Please pass it on. Important – Posts from any country are accepted.

Here’s my virtual Easter Basket for you to take:

Be sure to follow these rules so that your blog post will be counted for a donation from Hershey’s:

• Copy and paste these *rules to your blog post.
• Create a blog post of giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
• Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
• Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
• Leave your link at http://betterbasket.info/bloghop/ where you can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s.
• Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
• Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

I was given the honor to take part in a real Better Basket event where my family and I bought everything we needed to make 3 Easter Baskets and then gave them away to children in need. My daughter, Sammi, made me so proud when she chose to not get a basket this year and instead use the money to go to these Easter baskets.

With a gift card provided by Hershey’s and Collective Bias I bought the delicious Reece’s Peanut Butter Eggs, Hershey’s chocolate bunnies, Reece’s plastic eggs filled with chocolate, and much more candy. I also got the baskets, decorations and some toys. We decided to add some extra goodies and gave the Foster Parent Association Of Hernando soaps, shampoo, and toys for families to use to allow the foster parents to buy other needed items. Along with the two baskets that we gave to a local elementary school for 2 needy children, we added music CDs and school supplies.

The joy of taking part in this was more than I imagined. While making the baskets, my Mom, who is going through radiation treatment for breast cancer smile and laugh. Sammi was thrilled to be the one to be creating the baskets this year and to know that she is doing something to help someone. I was so thrilled to be with my family and know that the outcome would be more smiles from children we don’t even know. I also realized that we forgot our worries and focused on others.

Better Baskets taught me that paying it forward and doing for others without expecting anything in return is payment in itself. Most importantly my daughter was part of this. She wasn’t on the sidelines. She was a major player. I know this is a life lesson for her. This small act of kindness (remember, I didn’t put out all of the money) left an impression on me too. It’s a spring board to bigger things for my family. I’ve attached a Whrrl (slide show) for you to view if you choose.

Thank you Hershey’s and Collective Bias for this opportunity.

Here’s the President of the Foster Parent group accepting the Easter Basket:

Here’s the School Guidance Counselor accepting the Easter Baskets:

Don’t forget about the *rules (above). Hershey’s is donating $10 for every blog post to Children’s Miracle Network.