Humber College students raised funds for a camp that supports youth experiencing childhood cancer and their families while working on an assignment that showed off their sales skills.

Sheila Moore, program coordinator, Marketing Management and Advertising - Media Management at Humber, said students taking the Professional Selling course were given an assignment. It was to sell tickets to a trio of Toronto Marlies games or to collect donations for Campfire Circle, a charity helping children and families affected by childhood cancer in Ontario with year-round social supports and programs including camp.

“The social aspect to this assignment is huge because people certainly empathize with children living with childhood cancer and the students were doing something good to help others,” said Moore.  

Tickets cost $25 each with $5 from each ticket sale going to Campfire Circle. Between the six classes, 439 tickets were sold and $5,522 was raised in donations. Marketing Management student Arundhati Sudan auctioned off a piece of art she had created for $2,000.

Moore noted that the assignment is particularly relevant for the students as it takes them from learning about the theory of sales in the classroom to putting it into practice in the real world.

Amanda Poggi, who’s also studying Marketing Management, sold the most tickets out of all the classes with 36. Poggi had a pair of strategies she employed when it came time to sell tickets.

The first targeted the owners of construction companies and she touted the evening as an affordable but fun night of team building. She sold 25 tickets to a pair of different companies.

The other had her posting on her Instagram about a night she was organizing that included going to see the Marlies play followed by a trip to the pub. When she told those interested about the work Campfire Circle does with children, people really wanted to attend.

“I had one friend who had something to do that night but, when he heard about Campfire Circle, he said he was going to come to my event,” said Poggi, adding her friend’s family had been touched by cancer.

Poggi, who’s originally from Brazil, also got to experience her very first hockey game as did her husband when they saw the Marlies play. She used skills and techniques learned in class, such as building rapport and trust with a potential customer, in the assignment.

Some of the top sellers were invited to a suite at the Marlies game on March 18 where they and the campers were acknowledged and thanked for their efforts with an announcement during a break in the game.

Moore noted that some students, after being introduced to Campfire Circle and the work it does during a training session at the Humber International Graduate School, have volunteered with the organization.

Campfire Circle formed in 2020 after Camp Ooch and Camp Trillium, both of which were founded in the 1980s, merged.