We barely spent $200 on our first one last year . ..we sent to Sam's Club to purchase the hot dogs, buns, individual bags of chips and a local grocery store had the soda really cheap because the labor day sales had started (we started late last year).
I think we are embarking on our 8th annual Back to School Bash. I know it started before my kids were in school. This year the theme is "Fiesta." It is sponsored by our Family Resource and Youth Servcie Centers, the Health Dept. and other local agencies. It is a huge success. Agencies with info set up booths. Most give treats or something useful. The Health Dept is set up for immunizations.Schools set up for registration and give out supply list from teachers. Sometimes the 4-H comes with a petting zoo and allow pony rides for $1 and the Band or another club sells concessions. Other than that everything is free. There are alot of donated items that are given away as door prizes. It is generally held about three weeks before school starts.
I am sure if you wanted to you could find some local sponsors to help you out, at least with the food, since your budget is low.
What is a block anyhow? Just kidding we do have one of those in our town. Ha Ha.
Thanks for the wonderful input. I will see what the board thinks about doing this closer to school starting instead of before it starts. We don't have a huge budget, so I was toying with the idea of making it kind of a pot luck thing. We have a great volunteer base at the school. Our other alternative is to talk to the various restaurants in our 'hood to see if they would be willing to donate some food.
We held our first one last year, the weekend before school started. It was called our "back to school block party". We sent out invited in the school packet that went out to all families with the start of school info.
The 6 PTO board members put it together. One family brought their bbq pit and bbq'd hot dogs, another familily was responsible for coolers for the soda, our family was in charge of music (my hubby is in the "electonic" business and brought a sub (speaker LOL) that was so good you could hear the music no matter where you were in the playground.
We did relay races, contacted a local radio station that donated to promo prizes and such.
It was very much fun, however, because we did it before school started, many families were out of town and only 2 teachers came as it was their last weekend before they went back to work as well.
Anyway, the Principal made the comment that this year, PTO should hosts it the weekend "after" school starts as there will be more families who could attend.
our school will be having it third block party this year, it is such a great opportunity to get families out. It is put on by our character education team, all our pto does is have a table with our scrapbooks(one use for those picture) a display board, flyers , year schedule and sign ups. I generally try to walk around and make actual contact with alot of parents...got side track. the party consists of a dj who does alot of kid oriented dances (ymca, chicken dance, etc.) usually alot of adults get out to dance as well, since the party is held in the quad the playground is also right there for the kids. dinner is hotdogs, chips, drink and desert. No cost at all to the families, if you can do it i would highly recommend doing it, ours is done the first week of school. It truly is a great time
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
Our PTO is toying w/the idea of throwing a block party before school starts this fall. Last year was the first year for our school and we are looking for ways to help new parents learn the ropes and get acquainted. The school is in a wonderful neighborhood and we can probably get lots of community support for the block party.
I'm looking for any ideas on what activities/food/etc. others think might be a good idea. We are looking at holding it a week or so before school starts in August. Has anyone done anything similar to this?
