The River Dell Music and Drama departments hosted a mattress fundraiser on January 27th, 2024 from 10 AM to 5 PM. Family members and friends of the students involved were invited to purchase an affordable mattress to help raise funds for new instruments, put on musicals and afford other costs regarding the music and drama department affairs.
But how did RD Music and Drama come to host a mattress sale in the first place?!
According to Mr. Wilson, the band and chorus teacher, it originated from an idea brought to him in the beginning of 2020. Mr. Wilson’s departments were raising money for a trip to central Europe, when someone approached Mr. Wilson and exclaimed “Hey, sell mattresses! Everybody needs a new mattress.” However, before they could host a mattress sale, COVID-19 had everyone go under lockdown. A couple of years later, Mr. Wilson had an epiphany while in his car.
“I was driving through Emerson a couple of months ago and I saw a sign saying ‘Mattress Sale!’ and it spurred something in my memories, so I contacted the company to have us do that,” exclaimed Mr. Wilson.
After reaching out to CFS Mattresses, Mr. Wilson secured a fundraiser with Mattress Firm to sell mattresses at discount prices for River Dell’s Drama and Music fundraiser. From there, the most important factor came into play: advertising.
River Dell students were asked to share the mattress sale flyer with friends, family, everyone, and anyone, at an informational meeting on Monday, January 8 by a CFO Mattress representative.
Gabe Gallo, a junior who went to the informational meeting, mentioned ”We had to send out links to our family, friends, and we asked them to spread the word.” Students were asked to share a survey link to further spread the news of the sale and were encouraged to take home lawn signs advertising the mattress sale.
Gallow beamed, “We even made it fun! We got some prizes in, like cash prizes if you get this many surveys filled out. I think like, top five gets $100, for like 70 surveys filled out.”
With prizes like that you don’t want to be caught sleeping on the job.
