A little girl at my daughters school passed away last year after a long illness, we did the same as one posted above. The administration, teachers and PTA parents passed a hat and we also sent out a flyer to the classrooms (for parents) explaining the girls illness and our bank setup an account for others to donate to.
<font size=""1""><font color="#"black"">Liberalism is not an affilation its a curable disease. </font></font><br /><br><font color="#"gray"">~Wisdom of Shawnshuefus</font><br /><br><font color="#"blue""><font size=""1"">The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in government, is...
Thanks to all who responded. I talked to our president today, and she has heard that the family isn't going to have a funeral service due to lack of funds, so I am thinking that preparing meals might be the best way to go for our group.
One of our mothers suggested planting a tree with a memorial plaque in front of the school, and I am more inclined to spend PTO $$ on this instead of making a donation to the family.
I think you would be better off holding a school wide drive or something like that, with your group facilitating it. Yes a small amount wouldn't be a problem but you have to ask what if others found out, can you do for all is the question? I know it is hard to say no in this way but there are other ways your group could help and get the whole school/district behind you.
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
Last June we had an 11 year old girl pass away. In addition to setting up an account at the local back to collect donations for the family, our parent club coordinated meals for the family. I have since talked with the mom of this little girl and she express her sincere thanks for those meals as she did not have the strength left at the end of the day to cook for her family.
How sad. We have also had such a thing. In our case, we sent flowers from our PTO. To get around what we felt were IRS rules about giving cash, we took up a donation between school employees and PTO members and presented them that money. No questions remained if we were doing the right thing. School sec. hinted strongly that the school cannot give cash in such a situation, that school employees pass the hat and give that to the family.
You're just talking about something in lieu of flowers, so it would be relatively small, right? (Like $75 or less.) That's not a problem (tax-exempt or not).
