Gold Day Activities

GOLD DAY ACTIVITIES:

Pick and choose or make up your own activities. It can be as simple as designating one day for all the students to wear gold or as elaborate as you want:

Online or Virtual Ideas for COVID-19:

  • Create a Google Classroom assignment. Have your students make a flyer/poster or even write an essay about #GoldDay and childhood cancer awareness. Students can then turn in their work through the Google Classroom and share with the class. A great way to get the conversation going!
  • Have students make a poster representing #GoldDay to place on their front yard, garage, window, etc. The posters can be made out of wood, cardboard, paper, or anything around the house! These posters serve as a source of positivity and encouragement for their peers dealing with childhood cancer during the difficult situation we are in right now. Encourage students to take a picture and share with their class or through social media. A great way to bring awareness to your neighborhood!
  • Social media posts. Ask students and families to ask for donations through social media for #GoldDay. Remind them to include samjeffersfoundation.org  as the link for their donors to use! Or simply set up a Facebook fundraiser. Choose the Samuel Jeffers Childhood Cancer Foundation as the recipient for your #GoldDay efforts! Get the word out! Sharing is caring. Awareness=Funding=Research=Cure!
  • #WearGoldWednesday for #GoldDay. Have students show their GOLD every Wednesday through the month of September!  This will serve as a reminder to everyone of the children in our community battling cancer and their need for love and support!
  • Add a “Frame” to your Face Book profile picture that recognizes Childhood Cancer.  It’s super easy….Click on your current Profile Picture, select “Update Profile Picture”, then choose “Add a Frame”.  Now, search for “Childhood Cancer” in the search box and choose a new frame for all of September!

Traditional Gold Day Activities:

  1. Designate a “GOLD DAY” where teachers, staff and students dress in gold, make a sign that says something about your school and childhood cancer awareness and take a school photo—we suggest this be on the final Friday of September each year, district-wide if possible to make the biggest impact.
  2. Make announcements on the morning bulletins or in the school newsletters with childhood cancer facts to build support for the designated day
  3. Decorate the school in gold (gold balloons for the photos look great).
  4. Hold a coin drive or similar fundraiser. One idea is to have a manila envelope printed up and sent home at the beginning of September that explains Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and how their child is being encouraged to collect donations during the month…the child then brings in the money that they have collected for the month and the Sam Jeffers Foundation will come collect it all on the last Friday of the month.
  5. Invite someone from the community (a childhood cancer survivor, family member, member of the medical community or Sam Jeffers Foundation) to give a presentation in class or assembly to the school on this topic. If you would like suggestions for families to contact for this, please let me know. Sam Jeffers father, John, along with Eliana Nunley (Gold Day founder and childhood cancer survivor) are also willing to come and do presentations, so please contact them at info@samjeffersfoundation.org, or (805) 284-2175.
  6. Have a gold ribbon making club and make/sell gold ribbons to raise $ for Sam Jeffers Foundation.
  7. Have a PJ day to remind students that kids who are fighting cancer often are bedridden or in hospitals and stuck in their PJs/beds. Possibly collect $1 as a donation to Sam Jeffers Foundation to anyone who wants to wear their PJs to school that day.
  8. Host a lunchtime Gold Jam party with golden oldie songs to dance to.
  9. Have the drama, theater or dance club make a skit or music video/dance that incorporates facts about childhood cancer, held in the auditorium or assembly hall to raise awareness for childhood cancer
  10. Make Golden Hats from recyclable materials (teachers can have kids glue creative hats together and then spray paint them gold to wear on Gold Day)
  11. Have students look up childhood cancer facts on the internet and paint poster boards with the facts to display in their classroom or around the quad/MPRs to help educate everyone on childhood cancer (or see sample stats on Sam Jeffers Foundation)
  12. Have students interview someone who has been affected by the disease and report it to their class.
  13. Have students make gold ribbons out of paper with the listed facts about childhood cancer on them.
  14. Make teams to play “Stomp Out Cancer” where you tie gold balloons to your ankles and stomp out the other teams’ balloons. Consider selling the balloons to students for $1-2 each as a donation to the Sam Jeffers Foundation. Judkins did this last year and raised $600!
  15. Have a “March-a-Thon” where everyone dresses in Gold and a half hour or so is set aside when all the classes walk around the school or the football field, etc., and every lap they complete they are earning money that someone has pledged earlier that month—maybe $1 per lap or whatever they can get (you can have the kids bring home a Flyer with the details early in the month along with a Pledge Form for donors)
  16. Consider having a Lemonade Stand outside the school on Gold Day (parents or kids can make goodies like cookies, brownies, rice Krispy treats, etc., along with lemonade) that will be sold at the Stand that starts about half an hour before school ends and lasts about 30-60 minutes after school ends, with each item being sold for $1-2 and the proceeds going to the Sam Jeffers Foundation. Grover Heights Elementary has done this very successfully several times!