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

[Shawn]

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.