Craptastic School Fundraisers page

[Saoirse]

Maybe i'm just a giant ascetic stick-in-the-mud, but i absolutely LOATH school fundraisers. Kindergarten child just brought home a fundraiser sheet for Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and i know there will be more (candy bars, crappy trinkets, etc.) The ONE health-oriented event in the year is a Run/Walk event, which is cool. but the kids finish the race with some disgusting blue chemical concoction. It's not even gatorade, which would be at least understandable though still mislead. I feel like these fundraisers are wrong on so many levels- encouraging (even guilting) others into buying this crap, teaching our kids it's okay to schill crap onto others "for a good cause,"
making them into corporate salesmen, the list goes on. No one that i know actually wants to buy this crap anyway.

(please don't go into a tirade about home schooling; BTDT and it doesn't work for us at this point in time. Maybe we'll try again in the future.)

Sooo...
I guess this really agitates me because *I* feel guilty for not participating. I would like to help raise money for our schools. Though on the other hand, i wonder what *specifically* we're raising money for, as we also pay for school supplies, activity fees, parties, supply snacks for the classrooms, etc. Are we just raising money for more crap-filled events? Anyway, I *do* feel guilty about not participating, and i also get flack from my kids because they want to compete and get the prizes and whatnot. I've explained to them my position and of course they don't care.

So, a few questions:

Do you participate in craptastic school fundraisers? Do you help your kids, or do you just allow them to do it?
Are there any health-oriented FUN fundraisers that you've heard about or that your kids' school actually participates in?
Do you think i'm being a lame grouch about all this?

[InSearchOfAbs]

NO, I do not participate.

1.) I don't want to have to chaperon my child around the neighborhood
door to door looking for freaking handouts.

2.) The neighbors hate it as much as I do.

3.) If the school needs money, then freaking say so. I'd much rather write a check
for a donation than schlep around the hood for some byproduct money through christmas
paper wrap or whatnot.

4.) We live in a court - and I have even gone so far as to bring the neighbors my OWN money
to "sponsor" my child with because I'm so dang tired of my kids pulling what your kids are about
the PRIZES and stupid shit like that - which is usually a pencil, or an eraser - cuz in order to get
that Ipod, you have to raise like 500 dollars. Not.Walking.The.Universe.For.Handouts.

5.) This year is 5th grade for my eldest - Science Camp - You can raise money by selling Candy.
NO - what does it cost per child for science camp - 260.00 - here is your damn money and the
Candy Company will get jack shit and no one's teeth will rot out of their head, thankyouverymuch.

Now, that all said, there are two fundraisers that I like - the 5th grade book fair - where you bring
a buncha books you don't read anymore to the school and other grades/people buy them and THAT goes
towards science camp for all.

We also do Walk for Technology - where one week out of the year, the kids get sponsors for however
many laps they can do around the field at lunch time. This buys electronics for the school and other necessary
things, and the kids get LOTS of exercise. My 1st grader was SO gung ho about it, he would run three miles
at lunch! SERIOUSLY. Floored me. 6yrs old!

That's it.

So no, you are NOT being lame or a grouch about it - I AM! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!


Julia

[magnolia1973]

The band used to sell oranges. It was a huge fundraiser for them. They made a lot of money.

[Shelli]

No, you aren't a grouch or a bad Mommy. I hated fundraisers too and when my kids were involved in that I hated the obligation. Everyone else did too. I refused to be "that Mom" who took the fundraising stuff to work to obligate co-workers into buying. One year when we lived with my folks, my mother took the book in to work and got all sorts of orders, then we were horrified by the quality of the goods. Never again! I agree....just donate the money and have done with it. I think schools only do this because they know damned well there's parents out there who are competitive.

[magicmerl]

We homeschool

Although, I do have Girl Guide biscuits sitting next to me at work...

[Saoirse]

We homeschool

Although, I do have Girl Guide biscuits sitting next to me at work...

jerk.

we homeschooled and never had to deal with this crap. but we also weren't dealing with the educational aspect of homeschooling either, so public school is the least of the two evils (my kids love going to school and like their teachers. if they didn't like going, or we had a crappy teacher one year, we'd talk other options)



Thanks guys for the empathy. Selling fruit sounds like an idea, maybe i can talk with the people at the run/walk and see what would be involved in getting some less crappy drink alternatives. I don't know about the legality, but maybe we could buy some drinks wholesale, let the school mark them up and keep the proceeds.

[oxide]

I don't have children, but I well remember the MS readathons and the Thin Mints and the boxes of chocolate bars. And I hated every minute of it.

For the fun of it, I googled "school fundraiser" and stuff like "grass-fed" or "trail mix" or "fair trade" and got lots of stuff:

School fundraiser for delivery of organic produce Organic Food | School Fundraising | Natures Garden Delivered <-- looks to be based in Arizona, but if you're really enthusiastic maybe you could look into something similar.

Here's an even better one in Arizona -- grass fed beef and organic chicken. https://www.toplinefoods.com/2011/09...sh-to-schools/ <-- this one looks kinda weird though, might need to do research

Here's a farm-to-table fundraiser, based in Wisconsin: School Fundraiser - Farm to School - REAP (Research, Education, Action, and Policy on) Food Group

School fundraiser for nuts and trail mixes: Nut & Trail Mix Fundraising - A Healthy Alternative Fundraiser <-- Plus many more if you google "school fundraiser trail mix." It's not entirely primal, but come on, they're kids. And this might be the most acceptable to the other non-primal parents in school.

Fair Trade fundraiser ideas: Equal Exchange - Fair Trade, Green School Fundraising <-- lots of vegan oopsie stuff, but also gluten-free and good chocolate and coffee.

And if you don't want to sell food, even LunchBots -- the folks who make stainless steel lunch containers -- have a fundraiser program: school and group orders | LunchBots Stainless Steel Food Containers

[Saoirse]

some cool ideas, thank you oxide!

[PrimallyJenna]

When I was in high school we did a citrus fruit sale for band, too. It was awesome- my mom would buy a case of grapefruit and a case of oranges and keep them in the garage (we live in Cleveland, so cold in winter).

[MissJecka]

I actually enjoyed fundraising when I was a kid. I guess I'm in the minority. I was a Girl Scout for a whopping 3 years so I sold cookies door-to-door and my dad would bring the order form to work in order to pester his coworkers into buying a box (or three... or ten...).

In elementary school, I don't recall selling candy or even fruit, but we did have a bike-a-thon (you'd get neighbors/family to pledge a certain amount for every mile or meter or something). I remember the number of pledges I got and the distance I biked got me enough "points" to get a Game Boy! Healthy (running), but not (video game) all at the same time... hmm. For band, we sold lollipops for $1 each.

My nieces/nephews sell stuff for fundraising now, and I have bought a tub of cookie dough and a box of assorted microwave popcorn from them in the past. I don't have kids, but I'm not sure what I'd do if prompted/asked/forced to do this kind of thing. The comments here have got me thinking.