Note to all you need to request at least 6 months in advance according to the grant site. www.cybergrants.com/cybergrants/plsql/di...isney_quiz.next_step

Just out of curiosity. What exactly is a Park Hopper Pass. Admission to all parks? Or just somehting you can use in addition to your paid ticket.

For those of you that got things from Premier Cancun Vacations-- be sure to check it out-- if you google it-- alot of people say its a scam.

For those of you who received a gift basket from Stampin Up! did you just get the basket sent to your school, or did you get an email first?

I was also wondering if anyone has had any luck contacting authors through Scholastic? I know that Dave Pilkey is a popular author with our students, and I was hoping to get an autograph from him.

Thank you to everyone for the great ideas! You've made me think "outside" the box. And we are getting some great prizes:
Yes:
Disney Hopper Passes
Jan Brett
Build a Bear $10 Cub Bucks
Emergen-C
Ten Marks
Green Mountain Coffee

Plus a ton of local companies in our area. Recently I went to our state's "Welcome Center" and took a bunch of brochures. Not only for our summer vacation, but I've been emailing and sending letters to all of those places as well. I've recieved a good portion of our prizes that way. Children's Museum's are a big draw for our event, as well as anything that parents can use for a family day. This year some of our school staff memebers want to put together some baskets. Thanks to this board I have some ideas, and hopefully getting some product to help the teachers and staff put together the baskets.
We are on "spring break" right now, so I can't wait to go to school on Monday afternoon to see what we've received once the mail comes in. I have to agree with earlier posts that it's like Christmas morning seeing what you get in the mail.
Thank you

For those of you who received a gift basket from Stampin Up! did you just get the basket sent to your school, or did you get an email first?

I was also wondering if anyone has had any luck contacting authors through Scholastic? I know that Dave Pilkey is a popular author with our students, and I was hoping to get an autograph from him.

Thank you to everyone for the great ideas! You've made me think "outside" the box. And we are getting some great prizes:
Yes:
Disney Hopper Passes
Jan Brett
Build a Bear $10 Cub Bucks
Emergen-C
Ten Marks
Green Mountain Coffee

Plus a ton of local companies in our area. Recently I went to our state's "Welcome Center" and took a bunch of brochures. Not only for our summer vacation, but I've been emailing and sending letters to all of those places as well. I've recieved a good portion of our prizes that way. Children's Museum's are a big draw for our event, as well as anything that parents can use for a family day. This year some of our school staff memebers want to put together some baskets. Thanks to this board I have some ideas, and hopefully getting some product to help the teachers and staff put together the baskets.
We are on "spring break" right now, so I can't wait to go to school on Monday afternoon to see what we've received once the mail comes in. I have to agree with earlier posts that it's like Christmas morning seeing what you get in the mail.
Thank you

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone that posted!!! I found this website by random surfing. I have to admit that I am not working on a PTO auction- this time (I am a teacher). I am working on ceremony for the children on fallen military (ages 5-17). I would love to be able to collect some donations for some "gifts", both large and small, for these children (and maybe their Mom's-the widows). In the past I have always gone to local companies but for this event people will be coming in from around the country so I need to go with national companies for gift cards or companies that actually send the items. All the children do not need to receive the same gift so I am going to be going to tons of different companies and hoping to get 1 or 2 from them. Has anyone had really good luck with companies where they can send out like 30 items for goodie bags? We are a 501c3 so that should help.

Things that should be able to help others-
--King Soopers(also City Market/Kroger)- go to guest services and give them a letter will normally hand you a $20-$25 gift card right away.
--Walmart- your local store can normally give you a donation, I think $50 (a committee meets once a month to decide which groups to donate to so you might have to wait for the next meeting) but the corporate can do the bigger donations.
--Don't ignore businesses- we randomly left a letter at a huge liquor store and didn't think we would hear anything. The contacted us and wanted to help. In the year since they have been responsible for getting us about $7,000.
--Check all your local restaurants- we decided to take a chance and ask a locally owned pizza place and they will now normally give us $100 a time in gift cards each time and have held an fundraising event for us.

If anyone has any ideas they would like to share with me please email me. We have done the ceremonies for adults since 2006 but this is the 1st children's ceremony. The task seems a little daunting at times but I have till Oct 2012 so I have plenty of time. I want to spoil these kids because they have already given so much.
Thanks,
Amy
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yippie i received our portrait innovations tonight in my email i just emailed them yesterday. THANK YOU FOR THE TIP AND THE INFORMATION!! You guys rock!!

oh premier cancun vacations is sending us a vacation certificate via fedex. i am getting excited.. does anyone have information on them? i will be searching the boards for more information.