fundraising

[Gilly]

I have been on the local primary school PTA for many years.My kids have now left but I have stuck with it. Our members are now starting to dwindle with such excuses as" I have not got the time for that kind of thing" or "I work you know", I work at the school.Anyway has anyone out there got any suitable ideas for games for our summer fair or any places to write to for prize donations as the 4 members that are left are quickly running out of ideas.please if you have any ideas let us know.

[spudqueen]

I went through years of this aswell. My kids are now both at Secondary school so I've managed to drop my contact with Primary school (though it did go on after they'd left). One popular stall I always did at the summer fair was The Glass Jar and Bottle Tombola. Collect glass jars with lids (you need to get as many people as possible doing this) then fill them with stuff. I used to put in dried pasta, tea bags, boiled sweets, coloured cotton wool balls, felt tip pens (cheap shops are good for packs of these - just divide a huge pack between a few different sized jars), crayons, pegs (again a big bag of pegs can fill a lot of jars), some of those empty minature jars of jam/marmalade are good, I used to fill one with pennies, and then put 50p in one and �1 in another. Make sure you've got a bottle or two of wine on the table and make it a tombola, but 50p a go and EVERYONE is a winner! The kids used to love it because they always won something. Some of the jars I would fill myself, some of the people who were collecting jars for me would bring one or two filled and then I would write to the nearest supermarket (I also wrote to M&S once who sent me a voucher to spend) explaining what I was doing. If you're lucky they send a voucher to spend in their shop on the things to fill the jars plus buy a bottle or two of wine.
I also used to write to all the tourist attractions in the area asking for tickets. We always got some and then had an envelope stall where you got to choose an envelope, some of them were empty, some had tickets in. I used to write to zoos/amusement parks/cinema/museums - basically anywhere a family would go for a day out.
We also used to have a standard tombola - hook a duck using a paddling pool - coconut shy - ice creams for sale (needs a few cooler boxes) - a bbq (one of the parents made one of those half drum bbqs and we used to sell hot dogs, hamburgers and bacon butties - then we'd have a book stall and a brick a brack

[spudqueen]

My post was too long!
Anyway - don't forget that all local shops/businesses are fair game to write to to ask for raffle prizes.

I'll get back to you if I think of anything else.

[naomi24]

Hi Gilly, Woolworths, Boots and the big banks always provide me with prizes, so dropping a nice letter to all the big shops and businesses in your area is a must. Also cinemas, bowling alleys and our local fitness and leisure centre have always helped out too. Good luck.

[annie0000]

one of the mums did a nail bar at our last fair and it went down a storm - get donations of unwanted nail varnish and a pile of those jewel things from the pound shops. Also did gelling and non permanent coloured sprays in the boys hair and fake tatoos etc.
A Treasure map where they pick a box on the map to try to guess where the treasure is buried always sells out.
Decorating biscuits?

[doorkey]

I've invited the local hair and beauty trainees to do manicures ect, they always need some one to practice on and a bit of glam always makes you feel good