We just had our first Donuts for Dads this morning and it was a great success! We had over 300 responses in advance, and probably 350 - 400 dads and kids came.

We served Krispy Kreme Donuts (we had 50 dozen!- Krispy Kreme gave us an excellent deal), crossants, banana & cranberry mini loaf slices, juice, milk and coffee.

Everything went extremely well and very smoothly. All the kids were so well behaved, too! I think the dads being there really make a difference.

It took a little convincing the Executive Board to go with this idea, but it was well worth the effort.

I'd like to say thanks to whomever it was that originally thought of this idea, and thanks to PTOtoday for having this forum where we can find neat ideas like this!

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Just rereading this. We recently restructured our school and now have 970 students in pk-5th! Has anybody with a school our size done this in the past and if so, how many people do you get? I think my principals would not care too much for us having that many kids and parents all in the cafe at 730! Also, what about cost with this many? I would love to do more family fun events, but am worried that with our population right now (especially as this is our first year with this many) we would get too great of a response and be overwhelmed. We are a "school with a school", we are pretty much seperated into pk-2 and 3-5, so I could do it by those grade levels, starting with the younger kids first probably. Any ideas? Suggestions? I need help to get the principal to approve such an event.

Donuts for Dads and Muffins for Moms has always been a great sucess at our school. We have a grocery store to donate the juice, cups, donuts, etc. All we did was ask and they were delighted to help. We always send a thank you note as well as a big thank you in the school newsletter and website. We even post a sign in the cafeteria saying "Thanks to Publix for making Donuts for Dads possible" It's a win/win situation for everyone.

At our school, we charge $1 for the donut or muffing and the child's can come out of their lunch account. The food is purchased through the lunch staff. We have a huge success.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by laurib:
I just had to share...We held our first Donuts With Dads event on Friday morning. I sent out one notice on Monday advertizing the event. Usually we get about a dozen people at our daytime events so I only purchased 6 dozen donuts (thinking that the teachers and staff would be eating donuts all day long). The event flyer stated that they should come to school at 7:30 with their kids and have breakfast. At 7:20 am we only had 4 donuts left, the coffee was gone and cars were pouring in to the parking lot. It was my worst nightmere, to through a party and run out of food. Luckily the fathers and kids were patient and we sent a mom out to buy more food. In the end we figure about 75 dads and 200 kids showed up. The dads stayed around, even after school had started and were seen talking to one another in the parking lot. If you havent had one of these events, you should consider it. We received quite a few phone calls later in the day,from Dads, thanking us for the event and wondering if we would be doing it again. Total cost..about $100, but well worth every cent. We are planning one every other month, but next time I think we will put out a donation jar and have it in a larger room.<hr></blockquote>

The event is held before school hours, so kids without Dads, Uncles, Older Brothers, nice neighbor or even a male teacher, just came to the Muffins with Moms event, that was held the following month, or if they did not make that one either, they could come to Goodies With Grandparents, this one was a hit with the community.

Our flyers stated that all were welcome to come to Donuts with Dads, as long as they were accompanied by an older male role model. (any of the above listed above). We had no complaints, except for the few kids who tried to sneak in without a dad, but on the good side, the second time we did the event, those kids brought their dads to school.