Advice for money issues

[TDiver]

Hey everyone,

I'm not one of the posters that tends to post all the time but I post here and there. Those that don't know me my name is Tori and i'm an elite diver.

I am still 16 so I compete at the junior level, but in diving at that age your aloud to compete as a senior diver as long as you meet the requirements. So right now I am training to compete at Junior Regionals and hopefully making it to Junior Spring Nationals. But i'm also training to compete at USA Senior Nationals (sorta like the Visa Championships in gymnastics) in the qualifying meet. This is a lot of traveling within such a short time and it is becoming very costly for my family. My mom wants me to choose one but I am not sure which one to do... If I qualify and go to Junior Nationals I have a chance at possibly getting to go to an international meet, but if I go to Senior Nationals I will be competing with the divers competing for spots at Olympic Trials and eventually the Olympic games and that is like a huge thing for me.

Tonight I asked my parents if I could raise enough money to buy a plane ticket if they would pay for the rest (it's over $200 just to fly for me). I have 7 weeks to do this but my dad just informed me that he doesn't want me to have a real job.

I train 6 days a week and get out of training at 2pm on saturdays and my parents feel like I need to rest and go hang out with my friends when I can. (their great, aren't they!)

So I was wondering what types of things I could do to raise money that maybe wouldn't take that much time to do. I know babysittying is a possibility and maybe coaching gymnastics classes on the weekend... but I don't think my parents want me coaching.

I am looking for any advice on raising money or just anything in general. Thanks in advance!

Thanks,
Tori

 

[Billy]

Good for you in making the extra effort to raise money for your sport. That's truly commendable.

One suggestion might be to find a sponsor. I'm not really sure how it would work, though. At our gym, sponsors get to hang a banner in the gym if they contribute a certain amount. Sponsors can also get ad space in a program if the meet prints one. Sometimes you can get sponsorship from local business as a tax deduction (maybe; they'd need to check that out) for youth sports.

 

[hunde2]

My DD gym has a fundraiser twice a year where we sell home interior candles.Everybody in our neighborhood likes them and we sell quiet a few.I don't know if you would have time enough to do this but it works alright for us.They have a webide where you can get information from.

Good Luck

 

[gymgramma]

A mom at our gym contacts all their relatives, friends, business acquaintances, etc and tells them that her daughter needs tio raise $$ by________ and asks them if they could donate something to help out.

Not sure if there are any tax implications in doing this ior not, but she has been doing it for years.

 

[Gymnasticsgirl521]

I would try contacting local businesses with a letter that you hand deliver about your situation. In many communities people are willing to make donations and help with fundraising if they know the cause. Wal-mart does a lot of contribution matching for causes. I know through our MOMS CLub they have matched what we earned to help people. Also candle orders Yankee, Home Interror, Joe Corbie pizza is another good one. You may want to even have your parents contact a local paper and have them do an article on you and what you have coming up. I know in our community when we had people competing in sports at that level donations were solicited that way. We had two people go to the Olympics when I was a child and I remember my parents reading the articles and making donations to help the families travel to see them.

Good luck and Kudo's to you for being willing to help with the expenses.

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

Hey Tori!
When my sister when to Austraila she wrote letters to various companies around here and told them what she was doing and that she needed money and stuff for it. She didn't get like huge amounts of money but she definitely got enough that it was worth doing it. I'm sure many companies would give you some money for diving nationals!
GOOD LUCK with the money and Good luck at nationals!!!

 

[ZJsMom]

Some of these suggestions may threaten your NCAA eligibilitly. So, if you are planning on trying to dive in college, I would check NCAA rules before seeking sponsors. There may be a way of having a business help send you to nationals that won't run afowl of NCAA rules, but I don't know. It's something you should be careful of though.

 

[TDiver]

Thanks so much everyone for your replies!

ZJsMom is correct though. I do want to dive in College and because of NCAA rules I am not aloud to get sponsers so i was trying to just find little ways to raise money. I just wanted to be able to help out my parents because I am going to SO many meets this year, and I know at times they have to make sacrifices so I can go to these places.

Within now until August I have a chance at traveling to... Kentucky, Maryland possibly twice, Minnesota, Georgia twice, Indiana, and to Texas. And If all goes well Germany for Junior Worlds. That is just so much money to hand out and all of them are out of state. These are just the competitions though then all of you of course know how much sports can be so just my monthly training and wrist guards and medical bills (physical therapy, etc.)... just everything adds up.

I talked to my parents about everything and from, the looks of it my Dad thinks he will make enough money so that I can go but I still feel bad about it. It's just everything is so expensive and when my parents want to go on a family vacation the only time they can do that is when they make my meet into a small trip.. and even then we are always at the pool.

Enough of my venting though, more ideas are welcome and I thank you so much for everyone that replied. I really just want a job on the weekends but I guess with my stress level now I can't imagine adding something on top of that. Alright thanks again.

-Tori

 

[NYgymfan]

Thats kinda tough if your parents don't want you to have a job. Maybe you could go and let your parents pay for it even if you feel bad, and then pay them back when you are able to get a job. Good luck with whatever you decide to do tho!

 

[I-Heart-Beam]

At my gym we do a tonne of bag-packing!
We phone up the local supermarket and ask them if there's room- there's a youth group or club packing every weekend in the summer. If they say its ok, we wear our warm ups, go down there with buckets with posters on them saying "GYMNASTICS CLUB FUNDS" and stand at the end of checkouts.
When someone comes through, you smile and ask POLITELY if they'd like you to help with their bags. If they say yes, you help and they'll give you a few pounds for it, if not you just stand out of their way.

We've raised a lot of money that way.

 

[Anna]

I can understand how hard it is for you; I'm in a similar boat! When I finished school I decided that I'd pay for all my own training...so far this year, it's looking to be $4500, and that's before I make any national teams!!! (It'd almost be better if I didn't!). And I can definitely relate to the stress of not wanting your parents to have to pay for everything.

Ideas:
*Save money. If you've got an old wallet, every time you've got a spare $5/$10 or coins which you don't really need, put it in there. Then put that wallet in a place you'll forget about. Don't ever go to it "because you want to spend some money on a really cute top"; eventually, you'll be in need of urgent money for new *whatevers*, and it'll be ther.
*Agree on the baby sitting - let yourself be known, especially if you know young families already.
*Make use of contacts you already have. Do your parents have friends who run businesses? Do you go to a church, where there are always plenty of people around who would be willing to help?
Respect your Dad's wishes of you not getting a job, but compromise with him. Your parents have your best interests at heart - they want you to be balanced, and have a life seperate from diving. So, arrange for 2-3hours of work each Saturday afternoon, or Sunday am (if you're not at comp):
*Filing/processing forms/admin/shredding - any "little" and easy jobs.
*Gardening or home care for someone elderly or restricted
*Work in a kitchen of a small cafe being the dishhand - it's easy work, and local cafes are generally more than happy to help assist you.
*Walk dogs
*Deliver newspapers (although that one's not really fun)

Alternatively, collect lots of cans and drop them off at the 5c collect-a-can places!

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

Kudo's to you for thinking of the cost to your family at such a young age.

another thought - birthday & holiday $. A lot of times people ask what my kids would like and they usually end up w/ gift cards (which are great) but perhaps you or your parents could let people know that the best gift would be the $ they would have spent on your gift / gift card, put it away and save that way.

 

[NYgymfan]

What about team fundraisers? Or at least doing some fundraising with some of your teammates? For anyone out there, there is probably someone else on your team who is also having money issues. Fundraising is much more fun when you are with someone else then on your own. Of course you have to split the funds tho. You could do stuff like car washes, bake sales, anything else you can think of.

 

[lagymmom]

I just read this post today, so not sure if you are still looking for advice, but have you thought about having a garage sale? You could ask friends and relatives for donations of any things that they no longer want and have a huge sale. This would be something that could be done on one weekend, and if you had enough items, you could make a good amount of money to put towards your travel expenses. Hope this helps!

 

[TDiver]

Thanks to everyone for their great ideas. I truley appreciate it. I am having trouble finding a moment to spare anymore because of filling out college applications, returning college letters (for diving), having school with homework, then training so that is why it has taken me so long to respond.

The ideas are great, and I will talk to my teamates about fundraising.

I have an idea but i'm not sure if it would be aloud. We are opening a new facility and I was thinking that it would be great to like put on a small meet maybe and have people make donations to help with our program? Our program is building at the moment so it may be a great way to get more people interested in the sport.

Thanks again for all your ideas already!

 

[Anna]

Or you could charge a gold coin donation to watch, or an "entry" fee for competitors of $5...that's what we do with our rec comps at our gym. You make it such a small amount, that with a large number of people attending, you still make a decent amount of money and don't any anybody about it.

 

[gymnasticsbabie]

TORI! im in the same boat now... i have to raise...idk around 10,000 dollars by september? that is NOT going to happen, but i know it would be less stress if i at least could pay some of it. So far i have around 200, and im opening up a bank account so i'll stop spending it!

also if you do come to maryland, tell your rents that you can stay at my place, we have plenty of room because my brother is off to college and we have 2 spair rooms so call me if you come!

 

[BlairBob]

At my old gym, our Team Program coach actually including disseminating good to high yield investment programs to the parents. His idea was that by investing in whatever touted investment, it would end up paying for the entire tuition for a year. He also did it himself to roll over his portfolio.

His last one was through a bank and Japan and ended up paying the entire year of tuition for the optionals and then some. I cannot remember the amount necessary to invest, but there were smaller options.

Considering the cost of tuition, I thought it was really cool and as a coach we are always looking to supplement our incomes.

 

[TDiver]

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to thank you all once again for all of your ideas. I'm sure we will be doing something in the upcoming months but not sure of what yet. I also just found out at practice today that I am getting to go to the USA National Qualifier(seniors) and hopefully qualify to compete in finals. Thanks again

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

Yeah Tori Thats Awesome! Good Luck!!