Sunday, November 2, 2008

Give Me Your Money-A-Thon

The thing I dislike most about Maddie's school is the fund raising. Hardly a day goes by that I don't get an email asking to support the band, the cheerleaders, the 5th grade Save the Turtle club, or the 8th grade High School Musical Fan Club. And by "support", I mean "give money".


Maddie is in the 3 day a week Mother's Day Out program. It's not even real school yet, but please don't tell her that.

I've avoided most of the money pleas. Like the freakin' plague. Mostly because we are not 100% sure that Maddie will be attending this school next year. And I don't want to give away my hard earned money to the building fund for a building that she may never step foot in.

Last week, I got the most dreaded of all fundraising strategies. The blank envelope in which to gather pledges for a walk-a-thon.

Ugh.

I considered calling upon my family and friends. But, really, why? Would I want to pledge money to a random school? Um, no. Did I want to explain that it was for the new building and then explain that we were switching schools? Definitely no.

So, I filled in my name and my name only with a pledge of $2/lap that Maddie walked. I figured that since each lap was 1/10 of a mile and she had 45 minutes to walk, I might be out $10-$12 tops. I could swing that.

When I dropped her off, I gave her the standard pep talk. "You will do great. Take. Your. Time. Don't worry if you are being the slowest. In fact, try to be the slowest. I know you can do it."

When I picked her up later that day, I noticed a number written on the back of her walk-a-thon shirt.

"Um, sweetie? Why do you have the number 19 written on the back of your shirt?"

"That's how many laps I did."

Crap.

$38 going to a brand new building. Woo-hoo. insert heavy sarcasm.

Next time I'm sending Maddie to collect money. From neighbors. From strangers in the grocery. From the post office workers. From anyone that can not resist serious cuteness.



Seriously- who wouldn't give this princess riding a unicorn money?

It's a brilliant strategy, if I do say so myself. The school gets the money it wants so badly, and I won't have to give it to them.

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8 comments:

Melissa Martin said...

Ugh! I hate fundraisers. Curly Girl's dance school has them going ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME! I have my own bills to pay, thank you.

So funny about the laps though! I had to chuckle at that.

Anonymous said...

I loathe the fundraisers..I just did one at the boys daycare for silly crap no one needs..

But she is some little walker huh!!! too cute.. if it did not cost you so much money I would be all WOO HOO for her..lol

Anonymous said...

the fundraisers make me nutty. my daughter goes to pre-k 2 times week, 1/2 days. About 90% of the kids in her class go 5 full days weekly. most of the parents are Dr's-lawyers etc. Not us. So when they did a bike-a-thon wanting $100 MINIMAL from each kid. I about died! Luckily my daughter does not go on the day they do the bike-thon or the day the had a special party for those who did over $100. By the way one of the kids did $900! The goal was $5,000 to re-due the parking lot. Ya know where i park for 5 minutes, 2x weekly to sign my daughter in & out!

Anonymous said...

I would prefer they ask for a certain dollar amount and then I would pay it...instead of wrapping paper, candles, chocolates and all the crap I don't need!

Anonymous said...

jett's school does "invest in your child". basically at the beginning of the year i write a check to the school for $100. then, that's it. absolutely no fundraisers the rest of the year!!! i love it. they have great participation (usually 85% of families participate).

i'd much rather have one flat amount out of the way than to have to think about several fundraisers throughout the year.

that costume is precious though and surely would convince some sweet souls to cough up some cash! :)

Laura Paxton said...

I am SO with you....and with 5 children in school, I have to deal with them ALL. THE. TIME. Ugh. Most of them just go in the trash...or the shredder. The school already gets enough of my hard-earned money... So I figure I'm teaching my children about learning to say NO.

So, we don't sell candy bars.
or cheap plastic cups.
or year books.
or Scholastic books.
or candy.
or candles
or donuts....

Yeah, all of that has come home in the last 2 months...from 3 different schools. UGH. We are NOT salespersons for the schools. My children's jobs are LEARNING, NOT FUNDRAISING!!

'nuff rant....she's a cutie!!

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

19 laps? Geez, why couldn't you have a lazy child?! LOL

Colette said...

You mean a unihorn right!?

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