As I read Dee W's article on school fundraisers this morning I was reminded of an incident that occurred when my daughter was in first grade.
The school was selling some kind of boxed candies and my six year old first grader came home bubbling with excitement chattering happily about all of the wonderful prizes she could win by selling the candy to the neighbors. Although I knew that she had little chance of winning a prize, I walked down the street with her and stood on the sidewalk as she diligently approached house after house with no success. And still she continued trying until she finally burst into tears and sobbed, "Mommy, no one would buy any from me!" She continued crying on the short walk home and I cried too.
Later that evening, I thought about the incident and became increasingly angry about how the school had presented the candy sale and the opportunity for prizes to impressionable young children. The only potential winners in this contest would be those children whose parents hawked the candy to their own church groups, offices and social networks, since all of the neighbors had children of their own and were already stretched thin. I vented my frustrations in a letter to the principal and sent it to school with my candy order the next morning.
Although my daughter is now 40 years old, I don't think much has changed.
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Comments: 35
Though when my husband was younger he would ride his bike around the neighborhoods and sell tons of candy and he was always the one that won the prizes. Me on the other hand, well, I wasn't about to go door to door to sell candy, so I usually had an order from my parents and that was about it.
Don't get me wrong, I have NO PROBLEM supporting education,I think our kids deserve the very best, it's a matter of how they spend the money they have.
I much prefer to support the ones that are selling for something in particular, Boy and Girl scouts, band & athletic boosters, church groups etc.
My kids sell for the groups they are in, but I just told the school I didn't want them participating in a sale to give the principal a pay raise! LOL
They've all ready announced that next month they will be selling Christmas items.
My kids came home the same way. I took the decision out of the schools hands. I had to go to Wal-Mart last night anyway, so I told the kids "Either you can participate in the school fundraisers, or you can opt out and instead choose a prize mommy will buy you now." They chose a pokemon game and barbie movie. Probally better than whatever prize they may have gotten.
I used to stress out about the fundraisers, they were just about every month, times the number of kids you have.
Every year the elementary school my children would attend held several fundraisers. My children all came home excited over the prizes they could win. I sat them all down and said, "Yes you could win those prizes if your mother was head of the bowling league, worked at one of the major mills in town, etc." I then went further on to ask them who won the major prizes in the past. They all gave me the name of the same person, the mother who was head of the bowling league.
I then tallied up who we would sell to. Our family had children in the same school or lived out of state. I showed them the prizes they could win. It was most likely the eraser or pen or pencil for participating. I would then give them a few dollars which was more than the prize they would have won and we went to the discount store where they bought something that they enjoyed.
There really is too much pressure on these kids to sell. It made me angry then and makes me angry still. My grandchildren are now selling.
The schools are selling candy, Christmas wrap and ornaments, cans of popcorn, cookbooks and an assortment of other overpriced merchandise that I couldn't afford even if I wanted it.
When will it ever end.
Like you said, its usually overpriced.
If a child came to my door selling candy for a fundraiser or girl scouts, I would buy it, but I don't care to participate when they bring the lists to work.
As a brownie & girl scout, I had to go door to door.
Ten kids Mary! Your family could have gone into business and had its own sales force.
Although my daughter sold girl scout cookies a few times, she never did go door to door for school fund raising again.
With few exceptions, This is how I handle fundraisers. Its a lot cheaper in the long run.
In my other article I talked about the fairs and carnivals we used to have when I was little with the cakewalk, dunking a teacher in the dunk tank, etc... That would promote family togetherness and I think parents would be more willing to donate money directly to the school.
When my kids bring home a fundraiser, it goes straight in the trash!
Not fun at all.
I hate to say no. But it's just not possible to buy from everyone
When I was in Girl Scouts my troop sold Avon as our primary fundraiser instead of cookies or calendars because it was a much higher commission.