The School Fundraiser This Week Is….
School funding is in a sad, sad state. Budgets are tight everywhere and PTAs are pulling out all the stops to raise money to make up the gaps. We must have at least two fundraising opportunities a month for our school – and when I count in the emails I get on fundraising for the schools my niece and nephews and children of close friends go to, and we’re definitely at the fundraiser-a-week point.
There are book sales, gift wrap sales, frozen cookie dough sales, school insignia sales, walk-a-thons, box tops, auctions, and on and on.
I don’t participate in all of them; it’s not possible to do so, really. But I do what I can whenever I can, cursing the political budget backlash that is hurting our schools all the while. I recognize that I am very fortunate that I am able to support the fundraisers as I do.
I have noticed a smart, though totally guilt-inducing trend in fundraising: the sale of items created in part by my kids.
Yesterday the boys brought home booklets from www.ArtworkForEducation.com. It seems that in their art classes a month or so ago, the kids created artwork that was then scanned into this company’s system. Now it’s the parent’s turn to go buy notecards showcasing their kids’ artwork. At $20 a box. Twelve cards in a box.
I’m lucky in terms of this fundraiser. I’ll actually use the cards (I still like to send hand-written notes to friends), and my kids are pretty decent artists. Of course I’m going to buy a box each. I may even suck it up and get two each, and have the boys each give their grandmother a box for her birthday.
Even though I know exactly why we get all these fundraising requests – and I support them – I am so, so tired of them. On the other hand, I can offer no alternatives. Schools need to make up the gaps somehow if our local and state governments aren’t going to fund and staff them properly (all the while demanding better and better testing results, etc.).
Until I get that brilliant idea that solves all the issues, I’ll continue to squeeze out what I can for these well-intentioned, much-needed, guilt-inducing fundraising requests. And if I have your snail mail address, you might want to look carefully at the next note you receive from me.
2 comments:
J, I SOSOSOSOSOSO empathize with how you feel about these.
And, Wow!
You're dealing with a LOT more fundraisers than we have. Our PTA has 2 catalogue-type sales a year (wrapping paper and pizzas), a carnival in the fall, and a few smallish things (boxtops - talk about a lucrative fundrasier!!, that kids' artwork kind of thing, school car magnets).
I'm thinking about this a lot since I'll be (ergh) president next year. I'd love to try some new things - a read-a-thon (at least you know all the money goes to the school that way, rather than half going to a company). I want to try new things - I'm sick of wrapping paper and pizza. I found a specialty pasta fundraiser that looked fun.
But you know, no matter what you pick, it simply comes down to cuts in state funding to schools means PTAs are having to more and more step up to the plate. There are several wonderful reading programs that used to be state-funded that were cancelled so we added them to our already very full plate of programs.
Our priorities are SO SCREWED UP, aren't they? I just heard a piece on NPR about credit card companies and the dirty tricks they pull and the obscene amounts of money they are pulling in. Billions and billions. While we're forking out cash for pizza and personalized cards to try to give the kids in our community a decent education.
If I were queen of the world, things would be different.
What's that 60s bumper sticker? "It will be a great day when schools get all the money they need and the army needs to hold a bake sale." Something like that.
Part of the reason I have so many is that the kids are in three separate schools, and the boys are in two separate extended day programs. That's FIVE programs raising money! While some fundraisers overlap, some don't. The gift wrap in the fall, for example is September for M and October for C.
This afternoon a fundraiser for C's extended day program came home. Another kid-made note card set.
Yes, if we were queens of the word, things would be much, much different.
Sigh.
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