Carmel Chapter of FBLA

Recognizing the important role that the thousands of children in Putnam County play, the Carmel Chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America looked towards the younger population as the target audience for the 1999-2000 FBLA Community Service Project. After brainstorming several possible projects, Chairperson, Christine Lazzari, proposed the idea of writing a children's book with a positive message about charity. The plan was for FBLA members, solely, to design a book for an elementary reading level containing simple ideas that explained a complicated situation. Along with Victoria Vignogna, Christine Lazzari began planning and development of the project. Before initiating the production of "A Cure for Charlie," the following goals were set:

Goal One:		Form four separate committees to implement the project. The Publishing and Legal Research Committee was to contact the charity and consolidate a list of possible publishers and price quotes to present to the chapter The Story-line Committee was responsible for creating a title and developing a suitable story line to be presented for final editing The Animation Committee was made up of the most artistic of the chapter's members, who designed characters and illustrated the book The Sales and Marketing Committee was designed to sell and distribute the book to the community, and also to develop sales centers within local area merchants
Goal Two:		To distribute the 400 books into the community in order to submit a $1200 donation
Goal Three:		To donate all of the proceeds from this project to the Ronald McDonald House Charity, the New York State FBLA's endorsed charity for the 1999-2000 school year, dedicated to providing aid to families with terminally ill children

"A Cure for Charlie" has helped raise money for sick children in need of medical attention. Many of these children come from families that cannot afford proper medical treatment. Often times, these families must turn to charitable organizations to pay their bills. "A Cure for Charlie" has donated approximately $1200 to the Ronald McDonald House Charity, which helps pay for the treatment of terminally ill children. It also sponsors medical research to help find cures for these terrible diseases. Because of two recent outbreaks of terminal illness within Carmel High School this year, the project really touched many community members and increased the willingness to aid such funds.

This project enabled the chapter to raise a significant amount of money to donate to such a worthwhile cause. It has also allowed the Carmel Chapter of FBLA to receive a first place trophy at the New York State Leadership Conference and a chance to compete at the national level in Long Beach, California this July. Carmel High School FBLA takes pride in providing such services to the community and looks forward to continued support of the Ronald McDonald House Charities in the upcoming years.