It's been YEARS ago that this happened but our oldest daughter participated and to our surprise she caused a "donation war" between a father/son whom my husband worked for. Well, she ended up calling them to ask for their $150 donation after they pledged $5 PER JUMP! She was tickled with her t-shirt and jump rope and one other prize. Now 8-9 years later our PE Dept. does this and while our daughter doesn't participate (too old) our boys love it and anything for the AHA!
Our elementary school's (650 + students) "Jump Rope for Heart" program just finished up two weeks ago with a whopping $14,000 in donations for the AHA. This event is hosted yearly by our PE faculty. They send home the informational packets along with a die-cut shaped heart for any child who wants to send in a receipient's name. These hearts are then posted on a bulletin board outside the gym along with the information and dates of the program. Because of the participation level and success rate of this charity, our PTO has incorporated a $500 budget to be utilized for "prize raffle drawings" during the event. Donations to the AHA are strictly optional and any child may participate in the program. Those children who do not participate in the jumping, end up in the classroom with their teacher so you can just imagine the participation level of our students.
Although this is a charity, I feel this is a good program because our school involves all the students for the good of the cause on a strictly optional basis.
We had our jump rope for heart a couple of weeks ago. Our little school of about 300 students raised close to $4,000! We were all suprised because there was absolutely no build up for it at all unless the gym teacher gave a gung-ho speech to the kids that I wasn't aware of. The kids did bring home the fundraising info that I think the above posters mentioned. Most families just donated a few dollars but some kids apparently did go out and ask for donations or their parents got them at work. Door to door donations were not allowed.
So the objections were because the kids were fundraising for prizes and not our of the goodness of their hearts? Not being sarcastic, just trying to figure this out. Unless, there's a big outcry, I'd just let it go. Our old gym teacher used to do jump rope for heart by himself with just a flyer asking for a dollar per student. And that's what he got! We heard a few comments when the new gym teacher did it differently the first year but nothing at all this year.
