That sounds like a great idea. I would definitely do it at our school. I've been thinking about doing something to benefit diabetes research. Good luck to you.

Make it a contest. Coloring Contest of elephants. Challenge each class to make an "elephant" jar, jug or box. Ask kids to donate quarters or dollars for this cause. make a flyer or announce it in the PTO Newpaper with a link to the Zoo. Contact the Zoo, they may give you free educational stuff. Negotiate a free tour for your school.

have a contest the class that collects the most gets a pizza or ice cream party.

do a "What's New at our Zoo" flyer or announcement in your PTO newspaper.

Ask Parents that have their own business to do a Charity Match program. If their child's class raised $25 bucks, maybe a business can match as much for that class. Give the Parents or business some free advertising in your next PTO newsletter.

or better yet, get a bigger organization to match what the school raises. Isn't there a Military base in upstate NY? see if they want to match or sponsor your school or sponsor a class.

have a bake sale or car wash and have the proceeds go to this cause. contact your local news and radio channel and let them know about the car wash and the cause.

Make it personal: ABC School is adopting "Ellie the Elephant" .... make a huge poster.

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I would do the bracelets. In my opinion, people are more willing to give money if they get something. If you have an event coming up, put them out then.

Our Student Council did a collection for cancer research. Sent home a flyer asking for a dollar donation - the kids got a big construction paper flower with their name on it hung in the hallway (doubled as decorations for our luau). It was slow as first, but when the kids saw the flowers with the names of their friends, they wanted one, too.

You could use elephants. There has to be a coloring page somewhere that could be used as a template. Maybe a flyer with the option of the bracelet for $3 or the elephant for $1??

Our PTO each year tries to do 2 community activities for the students to raise funds or other things. For the holidays we did a food drive for our local school families.

I would like to help out our zoo here in Buffalo. They are trying to raise funds to build a new elephant house so that we can keep our elephants. The one we currently have was built in the early 1950's and is very outdated. The zoo is asking schools, companies, etc so that they wont have to go to the state.

I am wondering if you as a parent would participate in something like this and if anyone has any suggestions. The zoo has bracelets for $3.oo which isn't alot but if you have a few kids in the school that would be and then most parents wouldnt do it all I would think not wanting to exclude one of their kids from getting a bracelet.