Maybe having a really cute 5 month old with me helps. [img]smile.gif[/img] (Yes, I actually started leaving the house....)
I went in thinking of it as a win/win thing. They get advertising, we get stuff to sell in the grab bags.
A couple places I just found are specific to this area so let me just give you an idea of how to find them in your area.
1. A doll shop owner is giving me several small toys/dolls like the happy meal toys. Evidently they network, so if you call a doll collector's shop and offer to pick up, they may put you in touch with someone who can give you a bunch of little toys. I guess they buy some things in large lots and can't use them all.
2.Specialty Colleges - small campuses will have a couple recruiters that generally love getting their name out in the form of cups, ect.
3. Anything to do with planes - go to small airports and talk to air schools, ect. They may donate larger things such as a flying lesson or they may have small flight related promo items. (I got little toy planes.) They are feeling a crunch because many people are turned off any kind of flying lately.
4 Anything that has a visitors center is likely to have give aways or if you go at a slow time, they may give small items from the gift shop. Go to unusual places like government testing labs. I got a bunch of cool heat sensitive pencils.- They change color in your hand.
5 Dairy Queen often gives schools certificates for free cones, ect.
6 Many grocery stores have free donut coupons, so does Krispy Creme.
7 Some restaurants have certificates for a free kids meal if the student reads a certain number of books. Pizza Hut and Panera Bread do this.
Tell me if anyone knows of other places like that. I want to have as big of a variety as possible.
Armed forces recruiting offices -
They were all together so I just went through the hall. By the time I was finished I had almost 400 items including baseball caps, backpacks, pencils, nerf balls, key chains and nice cups. Plus they gave me a bunch of bags for when I put it all together.
I bought the book written about in the article - "Beyond the Baksesale" by Jean Joachim. That's what got me started. Sorry, I should have said that in the beggining, I just assumed everyone saw the article.
The author has more contacts than I do - she's been doing it for a while. She said that she doesn't usually pay for the stuff in the grab bags. (Except the ones for her Halloween Fair - she buys $.50 worth of holiday stuff from Oriental Trading Co. and then sells kids' bags for $2.00)
She scouts out the parents in her school and gets promotional items from the companies they work for such as watches, shirts and other cool stuff. I keep asking for ideas and leads from parents but since this is the first anyone has heard of the idea, everyone is pretty tight lipped. I have been finding things outside the school.
I'm digging. I think this will be easier next year now that I have some contacts.
Just go to PTO Today's Homepage, look to the left under PTO Basics for Fundraising, and the next page has an article titled, "NY Mom has Raised Millions."It doesn't give a "how to," but the information in it is great. Welcome to the boards! :cool:
