1. Senior Project Speech
“If you fail, try, try again.” This quote comically outlines my entire senior project. During
all the steps of my senior project, whether it be planning, fundraising, organizing, or the actual
event, many things did not go my way. However, through the help of my mentor and my own
self perseverance, I managed to make my way through the jungle that was putting on a benefit
car show.
In the early phases of my senior project, I believed everything was a breeze. The planning
of the car show was easy in and of itself. My first task of planning was securing a sight for the
car show. When talking to my project facilitator about location, I first brought up the idea of
having it based out of Riverstone. However, after much debate decided that it was a bad idea due
to the amount of traffic and the liability issue of having non-car show cars drive by. After the
idea of Riverstone passed by, I suggested Creekview’s parking lot. When I brought it up, my
project facilitator seemed to like the idea. In a couple weeks I had had Dr. Eddy’s approval of me
using the parking lot to house my car show. In my mental checklist, that was one trifle out of the
way. Next came attaining a map of the parking lot so I could visualize where I wanted to place
everything. I sat down with my project facilitator and started drawing sectors on the map; where
I wanted to place the cars, the registration table, the spectator cars, and the food vendors. Also, I
need to make a route for the entering cars and the exiting cars so they wouldn't be in direct traffic
with each other. Once I was satisfied with the design of the map, I started to make an outline of
everything that I needed so that I could make the car show go off without any hiccups. After the
initial planning was done, I needed to gather sponsors so I could raise premature money for my
car show and cover the expenses for things such as trophies and porta-johns.

2. When I tried to get sponsors, it was much more grueling task then I had originally
thought to be. Although many places “pledged” that they would give money donations or raffle
items, a few backed out at the last second. When I visited some sponsors, they wanted a receipt
for their donation. I thought that this would be no problem. However, after consulting with my
facilitator, I could not write a tax-deductible receipt because I did not have a 501-3C. That permit
grants me the title of having a charitable organization. Therefore, when I got to sponsors who
demanded a receipt, I had to make clear to them that this was not something that can write off on
their taxes. Although this discouraged many potential sponsors, many still decided to donate.
Places such as AutoZone donated raffle items for the car show instead of a monetary donation.
These raffle items included things such as: free oil changes, wax kits, interior cleaners, gift cards
and even soaps. Obtaining the sponsors involved many connections and I even employed the
help of my mother to assist me in gaining sponsors. Statistics show that people are more
susceptible to listen and help a cause if a lady is soliciting. So with the help of my mother, I
managed to get 24 sponsors. With all the sponsors solidified, I could move on to making my
flyer.
My flyer was a task which I underestimated the difficulty in making. Through heavy
guidance with my facilitator, I eventually managed to make my flyer. In the beginning, I needed
an outline of what I wanted to flyer to look like. After searching the web for car show flyer
designs, I finally settled on one that I wanted to model mine after. Once I found my outline, I
was on a hunt for a proper background. After scrounging around on google images, I had found
the perfect picture. And this is where the trouble began. When I first started making my flyer, I
was using Google Documents. This program, and I later found out, lacked the tools I need to
sufficiently make my flyer. In a little panic, I contacted my friend T.J. I emailed him my flyer

3. and he tried his best to help me get it in the right format; to no avail. The next day I contacted my
project facilitator. He requested that I head over to his house after school. When I arrived, the
hard work began. I had to start completely from scratch since Google Documents did not want to
cooperate. I utilized photoshop and typed up all my sponsors in a separate document. Some
sponsors wanted to have their logo on the flyer. Therefore, I scanned in their images and inserted
them into my page. I divided the page into three sections; The information, the flyer, and the
registration. Once I had all my information on the flyer, I was ready to print it. However, the next
day, a sponsor called me and pulled out so I had to remove them from the flyer. I had to redo the
entire sponsors’ section. After I fixed that, I figured what else could go wrong. I got another call
the following day that a sponsor was not happy with their placement on the sponsors’ list. With a
forced smile on my face, I changed the last bit on the flyer. Without another phone call, I was
ready to print. I took the flyer over to office max and printed 800 flyers. That day I distributed
the flyer to all my sponsors. That was just one way that I advertised.
Advertising was another important part of my car show. Without people knowing
what/when it was, there would be no attendance! Therefore, through the flyers and many
websites I began to get people’s attention. I managed to create an event page on Facebook
advertising the event. It received a positive response. Also, I put my event date and details out on
many car show websites and spread the word out through many car clubs as well as my sponsors.
When I had all the advertising done, I felt like I had positive feedback about the attendance to
my car show. Through Facebook too, I had many people to volunteer for my car show. I was
overjoyed because I could not run the entire event by myself.
On the day of the show, I told all my volunteers to show up at 8:30. I decided to get there
at 8:00 so I could visualise the event in my head. When I had a confident feel about how

4. everything was going to go, 8:30 rolled around and the volunteers started showing. When I had
everyone there, I started to set up the registration table. However, I figured that it was placed too
far away for people’s convenience. Therefore, I relocated the registration table. After that, I had
some volunteers direct some show cars into the designated spots while others handled
registration and the music. Around 11:00, about 30 cars had showed up. People started to get
hungry and I luckily had BBQ that was being freshly cooked on an open grill along with snow
cones and a bake sale. However, the music and the snow cones were being run off of generators.
The gas in the generator that was powering the music and the PA system had run out around
12:00. Up until then, I had been making constant announcements and raffling off items. People
began to get restless as the day drew on and even once we had more gas, it still wouldn't start.
After tinkering with the spark plugs and the ignition switch, we eventually had it working yet
again, unfortunately it was around 1:30. I still had to judge the cars and the bass contest along
with raffling off more items. I started to mass rafflings, raffling off 4 things at a time. Although
this seemed a tad rushed, I did manage to raffle off all the items that were left. Then I moved
onto the bass contest. I secured a decibel meter to measure the loudness of the subwoofer
systems that 22 of the cars had. After sitting in all the cars and measuring all of the basses to
determine which was the loudest, the winner had a decibel reading of 135.3. The decibel rating
for an airplane taking off is 130. He sure deserved that trophy. After the bass contest, I and a few
of my friends judged the cars in 3 categories, Exterior, interior and engine bay. Once we decided
the winners, I had another volunteer count the money. When all of the money had been tallied, it
was time to announce the winners. I announced over the PA system that the car show was
coming to an end and it was time to award the trophies. Once everyone had gathered around, I
gave the respective winners their trophies. Then, I started to talk about Mrs. Sandy and her

5. struggles and why I chose her to benefit. After I finished my speech, I awarded her with all the
money that I had raised, it totaled to be near 1,800$. After some well deserved sentimental
moments, the deconstruction began. Tearing down everything was a lot easier than setting up and
it was done in a timely fashion.
From my car show, I experienced the falls and hardships of putting on a benefit event.
However, through it, I learned valuable skills to help me deal with things as they would happen
in a business like setting. Also, the most valuable thing learned is that no matter how many
hardships I face, the satisfaction at the end will always outweigh it.