The National Horse show instagram page just posted that they are opening their entries for the Leo Conroy Maclay grant! It’s not the full expenses from West to east coast, but it’s a start!
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I watched the class on the livestream- her round and test were SO nice!! Congrats, I really hope she gets to finals!
They’ve priced it out—looks like a lease for a horse that’ll definitely go around is in the $10–$20k range. They could find one cheaper most likely but they don’t want to risk stopping at the first fence or something! The quote for hauling was in the $6k range roundtrip, and she’ll either be taking her own horse or a barn mate’s who has generously offered her very reliable and quiet ex-GP horse as an option. Both will jump anything from anywhere, so she can be confident she’ll at least get around. She’ll spend the next month lessoning on both to see which will be the better choice.
Just a general update, the mom has relented and we’re launching an online giving page today or tomorrow. We’re in the process of applying for the USHJA Foundation Making a Dream grant, Leo Conroy, and our state association’s financial assistance program for junior members. Max combined amount of those grants is about $5-6k, and our total cost estimate is $15k for everything. So things are really cooking!
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So I was thinking there might be others out there interested in how we’re getting this done—parents of ambitious kids, juniors, trainers, etc.—and I thought I should give a rundown of our methods. We’re a little over a week in and we’ve raised $1300 so far, with a goal of $6k from fundraising activities to cover shipping and layover costs (just under half of the total estimated cost—the rest we should be able to cobble together from grants and other sources). So we’re about 20% of the way there and just under 30 days until the horse leaves.
- [B]Judge Feedback/armbands [/B] We went to a local show manager who had shows planned already and asked if we could sell armbands for people to wear during their rounds. The judges took extra notes on everyone with an armband and those riders were allowed to have a quick chat with the judge after their division was done. It was a hit! It added almost no extra time to the day since the chats happened during height changes/schooling breaks, cost me about $20 total for ribbon, and the exhibitors were really happy to get the feedback. We've had two more local show managers sign up to do the armbands at their shows. We're doing $20 per armband for 2-day shows and $15 for one-days.
- [B]Used tack sale[/B] One of the adult ammies at the barn is a whiz at selling items online (mostly FB). She solicited donations of used tack, riding clothes, blankets, etc. and got about $1500 worth of items sent her way in the first week! She's sold about $300 worth of items to start, and things are really picking up now.
- [B]Using our talents[/B] I've been offering design services to horse businesses, rider's mom is an LMT and is doing "Maclay Monday" massages at the spa she works at, our videographer friend is doing a special video rate at local schooling shows and donating 80% to the cause...it all adds up!
- [B]Braiding clinics[/B] Everyone knows the girl we're fundraising for braids to fund her showing, so we're doing Braid to the Maclay clinics! We're doing one the night before a schooling show that's an hour long for $30, open to anyone, and another local barn is doing one themselves for their clients and charging $15.
- [B]Halloween carnival[/B] This is our biggest event, hoping to hit $3k from this one. We're hosting it at that local show manager's series finale, on a Saturday about two weeks before the horse ships. Recruiting volunteers from the barn to plan and run the games, dig up prizes, and decorate. We'll be doing about 5-6 booths with various activities. So we'll have a stand selling tickets ($1 each, might do a discount for 20+) and each booth organizer can set a "price" (1 ticket per ring toss, 2 tickets to decorate a pumpkin, etc.). We'll also have a silent auction, costume contest for humans and small pets, and some fun classes at the show itself (a Mini Maclay, some sort of mounted/in-hand costume class). We're marketing the event to both the people who normally show at this series and to other horse people in the community to just come enjoy the carnival.
I hope this is helpful to someone out there! The main takeaway I’m finding from this process is that people notice kids that work hard on the circuit. I’m a little shocked at some of the people who want to help out—I never realized they’d ever spoken to our rider! But it’s a small world and a good attitude catches people’s attention. It makes them feel good to help someone like that!
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That is so wonderful! Thanks for the update!! 
What a terrific update!
Great fundraising ideas!
Have they tried contacting the Lindsay Maxwell Charitable Fund? https://www.facebook.com/lmcharitablefund/
What an awesome fund! I hadn’t heard of it before. It looks like they accept grants from non-profit organizations only, not individuals, but that’s something our state association could apply for to beef up their junior rider fund. Thank you for posting that!
Do you time to put together a Silent Auction? They can make great money and people/businesses are often very happy to donate.
Yes, we’re holding one at our Halloween carnival! We’ve gotten some really great items from local businesses. We figured combining events was a good idea so it’s kind of one-stop—horse show, family-friendly fun, and shopping!
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Small detail but…the National Horse Show is not on the east coast. Much closer to Nashville and St Louis then New York or D.C.
Update: our girl is blogging for the Chronicle! If anyone wants to follow along on her journey, she’ll be writing a few posts about the process.
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Yay! Looking forward to reading her blog.
And hey, some of this rings a bell:
I just saw that!! So amazing; thank you so much to Molly for publishing it! I had to laugh at the paragraph about the first draft of the blog not including anything about fundraising…typical Sophie!
Congratulations to her! She sounds like a true equestrian! I’d be interested in donating to a gofundme or a silent auction. Please keep us updated.
LOVED this great article about Sophie.
Here’s the problem… I am no where near Oregon and would love to ‘chip in’ in some small way to help Sophie get to compete in KY.
Are there any online places where I can buy a thing to benefit her? (Understanding mom doesn’t want the GoFundMe pages, which I totally respect)
It’s just that there are many of us with big hearts and healthy enough financial lives that we want to help.
Please show us a path forward that can help Sophie!!!
Emily
Hi Emily, we’re directing people to the Facebook page we put together for the fundraising activities. I posted something yesterday about how people from far away can support her journey. I think we’ll be allowing online bids for our silent auction on 10/14 in addition to in-person bids, or at least putting up bigger items online. We also have an online used tack sale going. And, if you read the second post on the page, I tried to address those who don’t need more “stuff” but want to see a fantastic kid go to Finals. (I also couldn’t resist slipping in a bunch of slightly embarrassing but very cute photos of Sophie as a kid! :D)
Quick update while I’m here: We’re rapidly approaching the halfway point to fundraising enough money to ship Simon to Kentucky and back. The shipping cost is the minimum her mom would need for Sophie to go, so we’re in good shape. Money over that amount will allay her financial burden, so if we hit that number we’ll likely keep going to make sure hotels etc. are covered without having to use credit cards etc. And hey, maybe we’ll raise enough so that Sophie can hire a braider and sleep in a little on the big day!
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Just a thought. Could you come up with something simple like a cute button or a hat that people could “pay what you will” with a minimum price listed to cover cost and shipping? As you say, there are lots of people who don’t need more equipment, but would still like to chip in.
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