What we have done is when cash was an issue we turned to the members and have done a clothing, food, uniform,etc drive to help were we can and needed the most.

We have been blessed, but last year a little girl was hit by a truck not on school grounds but on a busy street infront of the school. The futrating part was the teacher was dieing to help in some way and we (PTO) was ready to pay for summer school (or negotate with the school) and arrange car pooling. Nope. The parents wanted nothing to do with it.

This is one to talk out. The other gals have made HUGE points to consider and too, you gotta do what your heart tells ya sometimes and if it's going to WalMart and giving the family t-paper, coffee, Kleenex, and paper towels well, there ya go.

Our school had a similar problem this year. We had a family where the dad died and the daughter & mom were in the hospital. We sent the daughter(a student of ours)a cookie arrangement and for the father we dedicated a book to our school library in his name. That was done with the PTA money and then we(not as PTA but as friends) collected money and sent over meals everyday for three weeks.

Similar to dragonlady, we have a sunshine committee, with a budget for illness, accidents, hospitalizations, babies, weddings and funerals. We wrote a policy this year, to help insure that we respond to events in the lives of students and staff consistently. (What type of event gets what type of response) I can send it to you if you'd be interested.

Similar to dragonlady, we have a sunshine committee, with a budget for illness, accidents, hospitalizations, babies, weddings and funerals. We wrote a policy this year, to help insure that we respond to events in the lives of students and staff consistently. (What type of event gets what type of response) I can send it to you if you'd be interested.

We had a child last school year that lost both parents, our PTO with the help of our principal held a Krispy Kreme fundraiser for the child with permission from the grandparents (guardians). The money went in an account to be used for clothes, gifts for the holidays, etc. No matter what you do for these families I'm sure it will be apprecaited, depending on what you want to do it may be a good idea to talk to a family member first.

thanks for all the advice we checked our bylaws and decided giving from our funds is not allowed so we put out sign up sheets at the meeting for dinners and babysitting help and collected donations in a jar to fund a family tree for earthday to commemorate all the parents! I think we have appesed almost everyone and thats the best you can hope for!!