Oops.. I forgot to answer your question (my, how I do go on!) We did our race on a Friday. We spent $340 on water bottles for each student, but kids can be happy if you give them a snack you bought at a warehouse store.
We did a jog-a-thon (using a company) and raised $34,000 and counting. We are a k-6 with approx 470 students. You send out donation requests to friends and family that you might not even ask to purchase from a catalogue. Instead of handing a person a catalogue and expecting them to spend $20 or more for something they did not want, they can send $5 or $10 and feel like they are not only supporting the school but the childs health. To give an example, I do not have a large family and it was a struggle for my kids to sell 10 items in a fall fundraiser. My two kids raised $700 from friends and family.
I can not say enough about the program and we had great support from the teachers (very important, in fact I would recomend not doing it if you do not have teacher support). Parents are thrilled that they will not be asked to sell items in the fall
We have gotten rid of sales altogether. We live in a community where several hundred kids from one school could be in one neighborhood. Our parents got tired of taking stuff to sale to work. No one could sell in their neighborhood because your neighbor had a kid selling the same stuff. We have a membership drive where parents of 1 child at the school pays $30 and if you have more than one child you pay $50. It has worked great and the parents love the fact that they don't have to sell stuff or even raise money for some other event. We even have several grandparents pay the membership in their grandchild's name.
After 3 years of not being an officer, I am again President of our PTA. Only because I'm afraid if I didn't do it, no one was going to step up.
We have ditched the catalogue sales for next year(thankfully)and as of now are planning on doing the pizza kit. I don't think that will raise enough money for what we need so I'm thinking of either the Walkathon or a Readathon. I've read all of the wonderful outcomes on another thread, but I'm afraid our efforts won't be supported.
We are a K-5 school who's dynamics have changed income wise over the past 8 years that I've been at this school. We even had 2 families last year who bought from the catalogue sale, but never turned in the money(whole other thread).
A walk a thon or read a thon sounds so much fun, but I'm wondering if our efforts would be rewarded. Are these done during a school day? On a weekend? We would not be able to provide t-shirts or water bottles unless donated, as funds are low right now.
Any help would be greatly apprecieated. I hope my questions make sense.
