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This Giveaway is CLOSED

On July 30th, four young girls will host the 4th Annual Backyard Talent Show for St. Jude in Morton, Illinois. It all started in 2008 when the 4 girls (Maddie, Isabelle, Claire & Kaitlyn) ages 8 to 11 decided to have a lemonade stand to raise money. For 20 years now, their grandma has run in the Memphis to Peoria Run for St. Jude. And so the girls knew what a great cause this was. The lemonade stand raised an impressive $155 in one afternoon. That success inspired the Backyard Talent Show idea! They raised another $350 for St. Jude! There was no doubt that there would be more shows to come.

Their ideas were even bigger and better. They made DVDs, set up a website, and wrote letters to people to raise money. They got sponsors from businesses, successfully advertised, and were featured on local news stations and written up in area newspapers. And now, three shows later, they have already raised over $26,000!

But this year’s show planning involves something completely new, as the girls’ moms discovered couponing over the winter. The families live on tight budgets, and the show budget is tight as well–something the girls have been taught about from the very beginning. For this year’s show, they were taught how to use the moms’ new couponing skills to save money on expenses, which in turn gave them more money to make this show awesome. For example, they purchased soda for the concessions using donated Kroger gift cards PLUS coupons to really maximize the number of cases they could buy. Office supplies were cheap or free utilizing programs like Staples Easy Rebates, and they shopped for costumes, decorations and more online through Ebates to earn money back on purchases.

In fundraising, every little bit helps, and this year, it helped so much that the show has actually outgrown the backyard!! It will be held in a local park with the support of the local tourism association and will feature OVER 50 children… all excited about making a difference for the Children of St. Jude.

A big part of the kids’ mission is to inspire others to give back–especially other kids. They personally know kids who are alive today because of the cutting-edge cancer treatment they received at St. Jude. And it costs $1.6 million dollars each day to run St. Jude, so fundraising for them is vital. But there are many, many other causes who need help too.

The Giveaway:

Want to help in your community? The Backyard Talent Show for St. Jude would like to inspire you by giving away a $10 Kroger gift card that you can use to jumpstart your fundraising project. There are 3 ways to enter. You can do any or all.

1) Leave a comment here on the blog about your favorite cause

2) “Like” Backyard Talent Show for St. Jude on Facebook and let them know Coupon Katarina sent you! Then leave a separate comment telling me so.

3) Follow Backyard Talent Show for St. Jude on Twitter (@BYTSforStJude). Then leave a separate comment telling me so.

This giveaway will end Friday July 30th at 10 pm EST. – extended… A winner will be selected at random FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION (those are your tickets in) and contacted by email. Winner has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected. If you want more information about the Backyard Talent Show for St. Jude, visit www.backyardtalentshow.shutterfly.com And if you have questions about starting your own show, you can email them at backyardtalentshow at gmail dot com.