In 2009 Akela’s founder Pekka got an idea to get dearly needed funds for the local Porvoo Steiner / Waldorf school. There are plenty of apples in autumn which are not used. The apples make great juice. Juice can be sold. This means money for the school.
In a shortest time Akela managed to get plenty of donations, starting from apples to bottles to corks to bottling to boxes to advertising in local newspapers etc. We got all the supplies as donations, some as far as from Lappland. Our local newspaper and both the regional radio and TV news got interested and we got a lot of publicity for the project. And more than plenty apples. With a bunch of willing volunteers from the school we picked over 2000 kg of apples and bottled some 3300 bottles at our wonderful local apple press, Sibbo Musteri.
We sold the bottles at 75 € per box of 30 bottles each. The Fredrika school fundraising for 2009-2010 schoolyear got a flying start!
We did it again in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014!
Come September and Pekka gets into apples again. We re-kickstarted the annual apple harvesting, bottling and fundraising project for our local Fredrika school.
Akela again searched and helped to pick the apples, arranged the bottles, transport, the bottling and pasteurising, packing in boxes. 2010 we used up all the remaining donated bottles. 2011 we rested… And in the following three years we collected thousands of kilos of apples and sold thousands of bottles of healthy apple juice!
We’ll be apples. (Australian for something that you say in order to tell someone that they do not need to worry and that everything will happen as it should).
The school fundraising is a prime example of communal spirit and the power of one and many. Akela’s founder Pekka is the driving force, Akela provides logistic support and overall management. With a little bit of encouragement there were always enough parents who all pitched up in with apple picking, bottling. Then we had some creative minds in the school to make the juice bottle an enticing buy, a new brand for eco-educationally conscious people.
Now for many years our children are no more at the school and the many memories start to fade away. But the apple fundraising project still remains as a brilliant example of how we can all contribute to the common good and how much pure joy and feel-good credits you can get from helping others. Today we make a and drink the same juice, just made form the apples in the garden in front of Akela’s office. The apple juice we share with our good friends, partners and customers – when ever we remember to take a bottle with!
Thank you for all and everybody!
akela 