Order your tent today! (It's not too late to bring your tent to D.C.)

Get a Tent: Your Options

OPTION 1: Purchase a new tent. The cost of buying a new canvas wall tent, the standard for Tents of Hope, may be a challenge for many communities. Reliable Tents Co. is offering discounted prices to participants in the Tents of Hope project. Reliable Tents Co. also will make a 14% donation to the project for each tent that is purchased. The cost of a new 8 x 10 ft. canvas wall tent with an aluminum frame is $500.

If you decide to order a new tent from Reliable Tents, you can use this online order form, or contact Connie Kellogg by phone at (800) 544-1039 ext. 103 or by email at connie@reliabletent.com. Ask for the standard Tents of Hope tent. Tents may be viewed at www.reliabletent.com.

NOTE: The size of the standard Tents of Hope tent is 8 x 10 ft. Center height is 8 ft. and wall height is 5 ft. Set-up takes 15 minutes. Indoors, it is a freestanding structure; outdoors, use stakes and ropes. Alternative tent sizes are available (12 x 14 ft. and 16 x 20 ft.).

Not sure about spending $500 on a tent? A successful community fundraising event will require planning to get groups involved and invested in the effort. It is important to view this expense in the context of a broader fundraising and advocacy campaign for your community. Your Tents of Hope event is part of a larger process of raising awareness, commitment, and potentially substantial funds for humanitarian assistance over a one-year period. One way to defray the cost while increasing participation in your Tents of Hope event is to divide the cost of a new tent between various community groups; for example, 10 groups would contribute $50 each toward the cost of a new $500 tent.

OPTION 2: Find a tent in your community. A canvas wall tent is recommended for this project. You may be able to secure the donation of a tent from someone in your community. You also may be able to buy a used canvas wall tent at a military surplus store in your area or online.

OPTION 3: Make a tent. An 8 x 10 canvas wall tent can be made by ordering the tent only from Reliable for $330 and then making a PVC frame. The materials for the PVC frame may be purchased at most hardware stores for about $50. The total cost is about $380. This option requires about 8-10 hours of labor time.

Creating Your Tent

The design of the tent depends on the ideas and number of groups participating in painting the tent. We recommend selecting from four grid systems for the tent design: (1) SMALL rectangular panels -- each panel is 12" x 24" with 90 total panels (plus roof); (2) MEDIUM rectangular panels -- each panel is 20" x 30-32" with 42 total panels (plus roof); (3) LARGE rectangular panels -- each panel is 30" x 40-48" with 20 total panels (plus roof); and (4) MURAL -- the sides and roof of the tent are painted freestyle, without individual panels. (Note: These are only recommendations and each community is free to design their tent in their own way.)

The committee should assign individual panels (or sections) to each participating group. The groups will create a design for their panel and then schedule a date to paint the panel. The panels will be painted directly on the tent using fast-drying acrylic paint (available from any arts or crafts store). The canvas surface should be painted with gesso before the panels are painted. Alternative materials may be used for the panels, such as needlepoint and quilting (panels that are sewn on the tent). If the mural design is selected by the committee and groups, dates for painting the tent should be scheduled as community-wide events. Ideas for painting will be posted soon on this website.

Painting the tent is a great opportunity to bring groups, families, congregations and the community together for a fun activity. This is a perfect time to invite the media and schedule educational and advocacy events or fundraisers for humanitarian aid. Keep a photo/video journal of the creation of your tent.