Although I'm not totally sure how we aquired the popcorn and slushy machine we have, we use them a LOT!
Every week, students can purchase a bag of popcorn for 50c. Money is collected ahead of time and the popcorn is made and handed out on Friday mornings. The slushy machine is a totally new "monster". Although the kids love it, and also get to buy them, we only offer them once a month, or so. The problem is that they are so messy! The popcorn machine has really been a huge success though. We use it for rewards for fundraising competitions. Class who bring in the most box-tops can choose from a popcorn, slushy or PJ party. We sell it to family members at school events. I'm not so sure that given the chance we would go for the slushy machine again, but the popcorn, definitely.
If you have extra money and this is something that your group would use quite a bit i would say go ahead and do it. You don't have to explain everything you do to your teaching staff. I would love our group to get it's own popcorn machine because I know we would use it alot BUT we never have those extra funds, bottom line it sounds like it is something that the kids enjoy and that is what matters the most!
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
I agree with Vicki B. I think renting one is a wiser decision. You can spend the extra money on a special field trip or program for the children or buy new books for the library or new computer software.
We have a Field Day each year and have a slush machine donated. I think we've had other events where the popcorn machine has been donated as well. You may want to check into a local party equipment rental place that may be willing to donate the machine to your event in exchange for advertising of their company in the event flyer.
I'm looking for some thoughts - Our PTO has busted butt this year and we have extra money. WOW!! For our dance in January, we borrowed a smoothie machine and the kids went crazy over it and we made a lot of money from it. It was a friend of a friend thing so we can't make a habit of using it. We would like to check into purchasing one with the extra funds.
The problem lies in that three years ago, the PTO bought a popcorn machine and the teachers/staff got a real attitude about it. How dare we spend money on such a frivolous thing??? It took a LONG time for it to go away. Do we chance that happening again??
