1. Grace McAdory
Mrs. Corbett
Senior Project
April 9, 2012
Senior Project Speech
Growing up in a Christian home, I have always been taught to spread the love of Jesus
Christ to anyone and everyone. From a young age, I learned the importance and potential of
being a motivated Christian, and I realized the impact I could make on others.I started attending
North Point Community Church the summer going into my freshman year of high school, and I
continue to attend to this day. I joined the youth ministry offered by the church called “Inside
Out;” I made lifetime friends and developed a powerful relationship with Jesus Christ. As I
matured throughout high school, I came to the conclusion that I needed to broaden my spectrum
of spreading God’s love. With this experience in mind, I decided to fundraise for a mission trip
to El Salvador for my senior project. What is the one key component a person needs to fund a
mission trip? Money.To promote and raise money for my trip, I created “Cookies by Grace.”
GlobalX is a worldwide association of North Point Ministries Incorporated. The company
holds partnerships with thirteen countries around the world in order to spread the values of
leading people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I had to research these values,
principals, and requirements for GlobalX mission trips before ultimately deciding on which trip
to attend. The organization provides opportunities for people to serve in various locations such as
Brazil, Cambodia, East Asia, El Salvador, Estonia, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Haiti,

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Macedonia, Venezuela, and more for ministry practices. I learned that when choosing what
country to attend, I had to keep in mind what I could mentally, skillfully, and physically handle. I
chose El Salvador because the bulk of the work that goes on during that trip is connecting with
orphans that have been abused and abandoned at a very young age. I am very passionate about
working with children. A team of fourteen students and I will be working with the La Casa de mi
Padre Orphanage to provide the children with passionate devotions, prayer time, crafts, and
ultimately attempting to connect them with Christ. Being passionate about reaching out to people
regarding Christ, I look forward to pursuing my dream of being a communication director for
missions as a future career. The fundraising and work I did throughout my entire senior project
are actions I would have to perform on a regular basis in my day to day job as a communication
director.
Throughout the process of my senior project I became very educated in the marketing
industry. The product for my senior project was my “Cookies by Grace” cookies as well as the
money I would be raising by selling the cookies for my mission trip. I chose the method of
baking for fundraising because I enjoy baking and I wanted to come up with a creative way to
raise money. My project facilitator, Dawn Podicf, is extremely skilled in the marketing/business
industry and also in the food industry. The healthcare science teacher, Mr. Peacock, at
Creekview informed me of her skills, and offered me her number. She has owned her own café
know as The Carriage House for eight years, and throughout those eight years she took many
business classes in order to further educate herself on how to run a successful business. Those
qualities were exactly what I was looking for in a facilitator for my project. Dawn and I both
agreed that we would handle the tactics of selling my cookies by presenting them in the front

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counter of her store near the register. I put individual bags of my cookies in a basket, and
displayed a sign explaining to people what the purpose of selling them was. It informed people
that the delicious homemade “cookies by grace” were being sold as a fundraising technique for a
high school mission trip. Dawn and I also agreed that it would be wise for me to do plenty of
fundraising on my own; she told me that she would give me advice and tips along the way. After
the first meeting between Dawn and I, it was time to buy the ingredients and get started.
The first step was buying the ingredients. I decided to buy everything in bulk, that way I
knew I would not run out, and I would have enough to use throughout the entire process of my
senior project. The total amount of all my ingredients came out to be about $25. I also had to
take into consideration how much the bags I would be putting the cookies in would cost, and also
any other materials I would need. I bought the bags sporadically throughout my project, because
I wanted them to have decorations for different seasons. The total cost of the bags at the end of
my project was $10. Dawn taught me that this is part of the business process. She explained that
in order to make a profit, I would have to make the $35 I spent on materials back, and then
expect to make more for fundraising. After I got all my ingredients and necessities together, it
was time to start baking.
The recipe for my cookies consisted of flour, baking soda, brown sugar, white sugar,
butter, vanilla, milk chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips. The cookies were cooked at a
degree of 350 in a convection oven for 13 minutes. I also had a special cookie cake that I made
during the month of December for the holidays. I offered people that were interested for me to
write any festive saying on the cake such as “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.” The

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cookie cakes were ten dollars per cake and were available to be ordered at any time. The first
batch of cookies I made was in November.The process I came up with was, I would bake the
cookies, and deliver them to Dawn’s home to be taken to The Carriage House. The first batch
unfortunately did not sell as well as planned. I only made $20 throughout the month of
November before the cookies became too old and had to be thrown out. After that, I attended a
Christmas party at my mom’s work. She works with senior citizens at the Lodge at Bridge Mill. I
spent the entire day selling my cookies and educating people on what the cause was. This day
was very successful; I sold about $120 worth of cookies. After December, I delivered her two
separate sets of cookies. The money I raised in February, for Valentine’s Day, and April, for
Easter, was a total of $52.
The obstacles I faced throughout my senior project varied. There were problems getting
the recipe just right because at times the cookies would not rise enough or taste right. There were
also problems involving my marketing strategies. I especially got frustrated in November when
my cookies wouldn’t sell as well as I wanted them too. The obstacles, however, did not interfere
with my goals of becoming a communication director. I will take many business and marketing
classes as well as theological classes in college to prepare myself for my future career. I will also
be majoring in communication.
I learned many things throughout the process of my senior project. My organizational
skills improved greatly because in the business world, there is no room for procrastination or
slacking. Fundraising and working diligently to raise money helped me prepare for my future
career as a missionary because a missionary’s job consists of mostly raising money for their

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trips. I learned useful skills involving business and marketing. I now know how to effectively
sell items in order to raise money for a good cause. The total amount of money I raised for my
trip is $200. This amount will sufficiently help me when paying for my mission trip to El
Salvador. I am extremely excited to go to El Salvador this summer, and am very thankful that I
chose this as my senior project. Thank you for your time. Are there any questions?