My Sunrise Fundraiser, or How I Ended Up With Purple Hair for a Summer

This firsthand account was written by Nicholas Kapsalis, a Sunrise Day Camp counselor and JCC intern, seen second from the right in this photo.

​I became involved with Sunrise Day Camp because both of my grandfathers passed away from cancer, one only a few months prior to me applying. As soon as I saw the opportunity, I knew it was something that I wanted to do and put my full effort in because that is what my grandfather would do. While my grandfather went through terrible treatment to get better, there were two things that he loved, and we bonded over that made him smile: cards and fishing. That smile is something I wanted the kids at Sunrise to experience and is the smile I see those kids experience everyday through the hard work and dedication of our staff. This led me to being further involved with the organization, and eventually led to my birthday fundraiser.

Last year in March, I decided to run a Facebook fundraiser and set the goal of raising $1,000 over a 3-month period and giving more exposure to Sunrise Day Camp Staten Island. But I knew I didn’t want to just leave it there and hope for people to donate. I wanted to take it a step further. I chose to dye my hair and leave it up to the donors to decide the color that I would dye it. The plan was to have everyone that donated get one vote towards four color options: red, blue, purple, and green, but I quickly realized that this would be a little lopsided for the person that donated more money in comparison to the person that donated a smaller amount. This led me to make every dollar worth one vote to make people want to donate more and not just one dollar for an equal vote as someone that donated one-hundred dollars.

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After creating a short video for social media, I posted my fundraiser and asked everybody to at least share the fundraiser. I kept posting and sharing and asking people to donate, expecting the number to be hit maybe in May if I was lucky. But the support was overwhelming. 

On March 14th, my birthday, two weeks after the fundraiser began, we had hit my goal. To me, this was incredible, and I was ecstatic that it happened so quickly. Once I hit the goal, I announced that I would be dying my hair purple right before the camp season.

I encourage everybody to create a fundraiser like this for Sunrise Day Camp, and there are a few reasons as to why the fundraiser was as successful as it was. First, my friends and family are the reason that it was so successful. I give full credit to my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, cousins, and friends for not only donating, but sharing the fundraiser and getting people that I do not know to donate. Secondly, there is incentive for someone to donate as the money is going towards a cause mixed with the intent for me to do something beyond a normal fundraiser.

The people that see these fundraisers saw my passion for Sunrise through my short video and how much I was sharing this video and promoting the fundraiser. Also, the idea of giving people a choice as to what color is a major reason why people donated. People that donate feel incentivized when they spend their money and then get to make a decision on what you get to do. This really helps with people that only have a small amount of money to donate because there is a little more personal incentive for people to donate. ​

Here's the result everyone was waiting for!

Finally, I made sure to offer colors. While some people believe it is because I was willing to do those four colors, which is true, there is actually a different reason. I chose to do this because I wanted people to physically see the color, to visualize me with that color hair, and, most importantly, to have something to resonate with. If I said pick a color, it would leave people to think about a color they may want. But by having four of the most popular colors, it allows people that love that particular color to donate. I had a donor tell me that they love the cause, but the reason they donated was because they saw purple. One other donor told me that they donated twice as much as they planned because they wanted to see me with green hair.

This year, I have a different plan, that I will be announcing on March 14th, but I’m not the only one that can do this. Everybody can because Facebook allows you to easily create a fundraiser for Sunrise Day Camp Staten Island, and anybody can set a goal and raise money for our camp. 

To start your own team or donate to Nick's team (Sunrise Staff) click here.