Our middle school gym classes rent out the ice rink. Maybe that's something to look into & charge $1.00 for admission to help cover the cost. And ask if their concession will be open for snacks. Good luck!!!!

Send out a flyers to the students to audition for the Variety/Talent Show. Try to encourage a variety of different acts--singing & dancing are most popular, but we had students play songs on an instrument and poetry reading. You'll need one audition to see how many students show up and they should bring their music (CD's), props & costumes for approval. After the audition, we have two rehearsals: one to see how many are still going to perform, and the last will be a dress rehearsal to get the line-up. It sounds like a lot, but it's really not too bad to organize. Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I can provide more details.

Thanks Critter!!! That just might be the "ticket" we needed. I will ask the rest of our board tomorrow.

Can you charge a small fee for the treats, maybe less than your cost, just to help cover some of your expenses? How about asking a local grocery store to donate packaged snacks like cheese crackers or small bags of pretzels, and bottles of water? Ask around - you might have a parent with a connection, but it's not hard to approach a local store directly even if you don't have an "in". Make sure to thank them publically. If you get your snacks donated, maybe you could use your budget to buy a few gift certificates to use as doorprizes. You could buy 20 $5 gc's from Borders and not go over budget.

HELP !! What kind of snacks could you provide for a movie nite that could cover 532 people? We have less than $200 and have to pay the licensing fee.

The principal will not okay anything that has to do with being in or around water, thank you for the idea anyway Bertha. ihad2muchcoffee could you please send post some information on how to set up a variety show? I'd appreciate it greatly.