Reaching outside of my very local circle into some international experiences!

My daughter has recently been extended an invite to compete in the 'Olympics' of dance. It is by an organization that operates in Germany and goes by the title, the IDO (Intl Dance Organization? https://www.ido-dance.com/ceis/webHomeIdo.do ) As much as I am super excited for her, I gotta admit this isn't really the year for intl travel with interest rate hikes, inflation and the ongoing health situation.... The Studio that she goes to seems to have a lot of kids on-board with attending this event and understandably, the dance-moms are eating this up.

Meanwhile,, im suspect if this is just a ploy to get travel and tourism up.. and this seems to be an expensive, yet compelling reason to go..

With understanding the costs involved, i've opted not to go since its ~$7k for a child.. and I'd hate to not let her have this life-changing experience.. (12 yrs old.. a good time to have that memory of travel, team experiences etc)

She has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and has taken up the idea of fundraising and I hesitate at setting up a gofundme as I think that's a space reserved for more crisis-based causes..

With not having the option to really say no to this idea and myself opting not to go, does anyone here have any experience with massively expensive extracurricular stuff for their kids as this really feels blindsided, and do you have any good ideas for fundraising activities? They just did a lemonade stand and there was a lot of room for improvement lol.
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OH this is really cool, thanks for a reply! I know this forum is one of the few places i converse where there are truly people of all types - I represent those that have yet to experience a NIB! lol.

To give some context.. my parents never put me into any league-based sporting extra curricular. SO this whole world is very new to me. With not being in that world, I have to admit that it closed me off from knowing other parents that are already 2 feet in, and I'm guessing it's because of what i'm now seeing - these parents' time is all occupied by other parents in the same league/studio/events etc. I guess it's a cycle.

I also heard that a few more students are getting accepted into this and it's leading me to believe the studio gets some kind of preferential treatment with many of the students already have commited. I would be lying if i didn't say a part of me wants to go just to expose this entire operation! I may be mis-informed but I thought the point of the local competitions was to determine the best of breed? Wouldn't that automatically be the ones that won the most competitions? I just want to be proud for the right reasons, but a glorified participation ribbon.. now i'm not so sure.

The kid now is all in on making some hand-crafted bracelets and necklaces. The beading is unique, appealing and we are going to start combining them so when they have their lemonade going, they can leverage the effort and cross sell into other things. It's a sign of the times as kids now are... well.. sheltered and constructed media ala IG/youtube sorta plants the ideas of what they think is attractive and attracts others. Having spirit and actually doing the work are still very much in separate camps with this generation... ugh, wish me luck!

that bird has already put their kid on a pedestal and all things considered, wouldn't be my first choice to hang out..... the slightest whiff of 'you're doing OK" gets immediately translated to "you are the best in your group"..... sigh...

I guess real parents just don't exist anymore...

@rdoyle1978, yup, she has been at this dance thing solid for about 4 yrs now, I have to admit i DO see a lot of improvement.. i mean, yr1 is basically walking like a giraffe or similar animal, right? lol. so as much as I would kibosh the entire thing, you nailed it with... "they won't be kids forever"...

in other news, i was googling late last night and I did see a few IDO kids from previous years on gofundme....

https://www.gofundme.com/f/tkdbv7-team-canada (not my kid)

maybe i'll do something here, and or use some proceeds from the translites I hawk here and on FB pinball groups (LAH, DM, Nascar) and use that as some scratch...

I had no idea these organized sports were so.... kinda like sending ur kid with girl guide cookies out and they MUST peddle at least 10 cases to get a ribbon type-of-deals......

@pinretail, this is such a good insight. I think i'm just steamrolled by the financial commitment and the overall execution of how this has been handled. I agree with you on all points and do wish i had this opportunity when i was younger.

you are bang on with dance comps getting expensive... but with that, we have thought of a few ideas, and have received, coverage in the local paper and a separate facebook post from the municipal mayor, so we are hoping that will build some steam and get the eyes on this fundraising effort that the dancers are putting in.