I agree with Maggie, I find it hard to take comments made seriously if the person making it won't stand-up for their thought!

Please do tell us how the night went!! Sounds like a great idea! As far as the canned goods go, the Broncos football players wifes do this every year with great success and families often bring cases of canned goods!

Right now your focus needs to be on the talented and wonderful parent that came up with this terrific night! She really needs to feel valued and her ideas are awsome!! How many families did this one night help?? EXACTLY! That alone is beyond words!!
Three cans of beans @ $.59 a piece....I wonder if they felt a movie was cheaper!??!

Wow, that does sound like a great idea. How did it go? did families come and have fun? Did the parents who complained offer to help in any way shape or form? (maybe if you do this again, they could have a free admission, or reduced?) My personal feeling on anonymous letters is that if the person really wants to complain they should at least sign the letter. You can't address their concerns if you don't know who it is. I might at a meeting say something like, we ran this event, it went well, does anyone have any ideas on how to make it even better next year. I see nothing wrong with having kids and parents bring in food/toys for people that are less fortunant and it's a good way to get kids involved in the community. Good luck! maggie

I am looking for a little input from some fellow PTSO'ers. This Winter, Nov. 30th to be exact, our school hosted a Family Sharing & Caring Winter Wonderland Night. Another board member had the idea back last summer and it all sounded so great - I jumped on board to help her with the planning (I am the PTSO treasurer). The idea was to set a spending amount of $500.00 for the night. This would not be a fundraiser but a way for our school to give to the community and a good time for the kids to learn about sharing & caring for others. We would charge admission in the form of canned food for the parents (3 cans each) and a new unwrapped toy for the children. After paying this "admission", the kids would receive a goodie bag (filled with a holiday pencil, candy, ornament, etc.) They then received a neck tag filled with boxes for each activity they could do. There were holiday games (snowman ring toss, pin the nose on frosty,holiday bingo etc.) Holiday crafts (paper chain, coloring, etc.) Ornament making (one for a tree to be taken to the Senior Center and one they could take home) and then the gift wrapping table. The kids wrapped the donated toys with wrapping paper donated by a gift wrap company and they placed a tag on the top showing boy or girl and the age group the gift was good for. We had the fire dept. there to collect the gifts. Those who came also received free cookies and hot chocolate. It seemed like there would be nothing to complain about right? Wrong!!! We had several parents upset at our montly meeting before the Winter Wonderland event. They felt that the "admission" price was too high and that some families could not afford to come. We tried to explain that the new unwrapped toy could be something like a hot wheel car or coloring book, etc. It didn't need to be expensive. We were going to fill some gift baskets for our adopted familes with the smaller items. This didn't make them feel any better. We then recieved an anonymous letter to the Board stating that they found the PTSO self-righteous in thinking that we needed to be the ones showing the kids about giving, they also said they would not support any more of our events and that we were horrible for trying to exclude families from this night of fun...this situation has soured a very creative board member from returning next year and I don't want to lose her from the board..do you think this anonymous letter should be shared at a meeting? How should we address it?? Our principal received the letter and didn't give it much credit but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those who worked hard for that night...any thoughts???? I would love to hear your comments - email me!!!