Wear your Heart on your Wrist

The Iconic Awareness Bracelet

Now in Gold

The Bracelet unites everyone in working together

… Until There’s A Cure

Available at www.UNTIL.org

$150

The Bracelet – Now in Gold

 

The More You Buy The More You Help

1 for $15

3 for $40

Our Orphan Bracelets are handcrafted by South African women living with HIV/AIDS using (lead free) copper, brass and aluminum wire. All proceeds go towards helping mothers and children in South Africa whose lives have been severely impacted by HIV/AIDS. Your purchase provides employment to the mothers, and nourishment and care to the HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa

Be Part of the Solution

… Until There’s A Cure

Raise Your Voice and $10,000 for Women & Girls with HIV/AIDS

www.UNTIL.org

Last Chance Items: Gone by March 1

Challenges our High-Schoolers have faced in Fundraising for HIV/AIDS

At UNTIL, there’s always a new project. Whether it’s polishing bracelets that have been sitting in a drawer for who-knows-how-long, or planning fundraisers based at a high school where people have an average budget of two dollars, it’s always challenging.

Fundraisers are an excellent example of this. Austin and I raised over 500 dollars in only a few months with UNTIL at about three events. This is much harder than it sounds- at one of these fundraisers, Austin and I were there for about two hours and made about ten dollars! However, the other two were much more successful.

The main challenge was that in this economy, and especially at a high school, money is scarce and students are so far removed from the reality of HIV/AIDS that it’s difficult to make them care. It was definitely a great experience in marketing, as we had to be very convincing salesmen. People would come up thinking we were just selling food, or that we were fundraising for breast cancer. However, this gave us a great opportunity to spread awareness about an issue that few students knew much about. I believe, that regardless of how much money we made, it’s important that now more people are aware that it is an issue.

It’s not just an issue in third world countries, either. Believe it or not, in the United States there are currently over a million people living with HIV/AIDS. AIDS kills approximately 18,000 Americans every year. I think it’s important everyone is aware of this, including high school students.

Until next time,

Kaylynn

Raising Awareness in High School . . . Until There’s A Cure

Hello, my name is Kaylynn. I work with Austin at Until There’s a Cure once a week. We’ve done a variety of things, including organizing fundraisers, running a T-shirt contest, and packaging a variety of bracelets. In my opinion, the best thing about working with UNTIL is the feeling that everything you’re doing, even something as simple as adding tags to hundreds of bracelets, will make a difference. It’s nothing like anything I’ve done before.

Overall, we’ve both enjoyed the opportunity to work with Until There’s a Cure for the last semester. We’ve been exposed to a wide variety of real-world experiences that we wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere else. I’m hoping this semester will be even better-we’re planning on volunteering with actual patients, running a fundraiser for Woman and Girls HIV/AIDS day, and writing both blog entries and articles for our school’s newspaper.

Get more information and help raise awareness . . . Until There’s A Cure

www.until.org

High-Schoolers Volunteering . . . Until There’s A Cure

Hello, my name is Austin. I am a junior in high school, and I, as well as my classmate, Kaylynn, have been volunteering at the Until There’s A Cure foundation (UNTIL) for half a year. UNTIL is a program dedicated to raising money for relief to help AIDS victims as well as raising awareness about AIDS itself. I feel this has given me a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in the world; however, what I feel has been the most rewarding and enjoyable part of UNTIL is the experience I have gained by organizing fundraisers and actually putting my mind and effort towards raising money for UNTIL’s cause.
Myself and Kaylynn originally found UNTIL as a volunteering opportunity through one of our school’s clubs: the Octagon Club. The Octagon Club allows students to find community service events with ease so that they can still volunteer despite their busy schedules. I have found that with the Octagon club, volunteering tends to be short and on a one time basis. This is not true with UNTIL. Although UNTIL was originally just another short event where students would package bracelets, Kaylynn and I have been given the chance to actually contribute intellectually to UNTIL’s progress. We have been doing this by planning fundraisers and actually getting to test our ideas for what kinds of fundraisers could be the most effective. I think that our contribution to UNTIL has not only allowed us to help victims of AIDS, but also gain experience and skills that will help us the rest of our lives.

Visit Until There’s A Cure’s website www.until.org to find out more about the organization and what you can do to help!