Fundraising/Earning Money for, well, "vacation"

[CronoTriggerfan]

Okay, guys, I need your advice. Recently, I was accepted to go to a 2-week conference in Washington, DC for National Security and Intelligence. We get to meet directors of places like the CIA, DEA, NSA, Homeland Security, visit places, run simulations, etc. It sounds like a blast, but it's also quite pricey. My parents said I can go if I can earn half the money needed for admission/travel, which is doable.

However, two days later, I got invited to a leadership conference for the presidential inaguration. Pretty self-explanatory, we get to go to the inaguration and meet the next President of the United States, in addition to meeting all the newly elected senators and House members, also in DC. This one costs even more than the previous, and though both my folks think it's a great experience, a good thing to put on a college resume, and is my greatest passion, they can't pay for both.

Obviously, I've got a bit of a problem. I'd like to attend both of these conferences, but it'd be about $3500 out of my pocket. Has anyone here ever had to raise this kind of money on an individual basis through fund-raising, getting a part (or full, during summer) time job, or some other means of raising money? It's an honor for me to be accepted to either of these opportunities, and I'd hate to see them slip away.

So, any advice? And please, I know the activities are political in nature, but could we lay off that kind of talk in this thread? I'd hate to have to lock my own thread. Thanks in advance!

[nightwheel]

Hmmm, I have heard that you can raise lots of money selling TNT fireworks in front of walmart. Like making either $400 or $4000. I think it was $4000 but i could be wrong.

[marshallh]

Get a part-time job, and work as many hours as you can spare. You might also look into getting some coupon booklets from a local grocery-store (Hy-Vee / Price Choppers), and go door-to-door selling them.

[Black Six]

If you get a full time job over the summer making like $8/hr that's almost $300/week (after taxes). Summer break is usually about ten weeks or so, so that's $3000 right there. If you start now you can work part time for about 20 hours a week, so between working before and after summer you should be able to earn more than enough money and still have some left over.

In my experience fund-raising and other get-a-lot-of-money-quick schemes tend to not get you that much money. You're better off doing some honest work. Guess what, that can go on your college applications too and looks really good to schools.

[gamecube6]

What about portablizing? just make one, sell, profit, repeat.