One Stone Students Serve Up the Glass Half Full

Following the trend of many events over the past year, One Stone hosted their annual fundraiser One Half Event virtually and saw great success. This student-designed, planned, and facilitated event was just as entertaining and engaging as the event when it was in person.

As a student-driven and led school, it only makes sense that One Stone students planned and executed the event. There really is no better way to showcase what the school is about than by having students run the largest fundraiser of the year to help One Stone continue making it possible for students to get a high-quality education at no cost to their families. The event was just another way to highlight the students’ educational journeys, showcasing their challenges and success through the process which allows for attendees to fully experience and understand the passion these students have for their education.

The students put a lot of thought into how to make the One Half Event just as engaging and exciting to attend as the past in-person events. The students decided to utilize the Vimeo platform to engage attendees virtually for the event. Students made registering easy by creating a Google form to gather RSVPs and even included what technology would be needed depending on the possible ways attendees planned on joining the event.

To increase engagement with the virtual attendees, there was even an option to purchase a curated event box that could either be shipped or picked up in a COVID safe way for local attendees. The box included everything from One Half Event stickers, branded glasses that say ‘glass half full’, popcorn and cookies, and a variety of miscellaneous One Stone branded items.

One Stone students created a special watch party kit to send to all their sponsors to show their gratitude and appreciation for their support. The sponsor boxes included party supplies, branded pint glasses, large bags of popcorn, and a variety of other small trinkets for the sponsors to use to celebrate the event. Many students hosted the watch party groups virtually for a deeper connection to the pre-event and event experience for all participants. Meghan Fall (a member of the One Stone Board of Directors and Project Good liaison) hosted a watch party that consisted of guests from national organizations, multiple countries (U.A.E and Canada), and many different states across the U.S. noted that the experience was unlike anything [she] has ever done. “I was used to talking in front of people, but this brought it to a whole new level as we were communicating with people who were in their own homes across the globe,” said Meghan.

“I gained so much insight into the art of using my knowledge and voice to make an impact…I didn’t have the building, or other people, or things I could use to distract people if things were not going well. It was just me and my story, nothing else. I left the pre-event watch party feeling more confident in myself all thanks to the opportunity to host.” The event was instrumental for the event attendees and students like Meghan who tirelessly work to create an exciting virtual experience.

The One Stone students did an outstanding job in creating an engaging virtual environment for the event, resulting in them raising more money for the eight Studios + Labs that One Stone now hosts for young people than they have in years past. Due to the success of hosting the event virtually, the students plan on keeping a virtual aspect to the event in the future by utilizing live streaming, even once it is safe to host the event in person again. They realized that the virtual aspect of the event allowed for more people to attend and engage with the event, which means that more people and communities were able to learn about the unique educational journey that One Stone students get to experience to prepare them for their future.

To learn more about the One Stone student journeys watch the video linked here or visit the One Stone site and the Be The Good gallery for more student testimonials.

For more, see:

• On Building a Network of Schools Using the One Stone Growth Transcript
• Getting Smart Podcast | Student-Led One Stone is Transforming Boise

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