We have a County parade in September. We rarely spend over $100 if that much. The carpet we buy to use on it each year last a while. The parents buy the candy for the kids to throw. For safety reasons parents walk along side of the float or ride in the back of the pick up truck that pulls the wagon. The kids that their parents help with the float get first turn on riding. The school across town had two trucks full of students along with their float this last time. It was really neat. Their float really centered on the kids and they had alot of spirit and fun.

Hello again, A boat was my first thought last year too. I am planning to find a donor alot earlier this time, also more PR within the school. The couple of us who worked on it had so much fun but I would love to involve the students and their parents more this April. Since I now do our newsletter, it should be easier to get the word out. Thanks for the input!
Debbie

Hi Debbie-

Thanks for the explanation. I thought the trouts were in reference to fish, but didn't want to presume it since sometimes things have local meanings which aren't known by everyone.

Maybe since you have so much water around you, you could use a boat as a float and it would tie into your theme and cause nicely. I've seen organizations use boats for floats, and they did them up quite nicely- somewhat unique and looked cool!

Hi Pearlie, I just wanted to explain the wood cut outs of trout. Sometimes community parks, etc will "sell" a fence post or bricks for the path to help fund the equipment, etc. The "buyer's" name or business is put on the post as a donor to the fund. Because Kalkaska is home of The National Trout Festival, we decided to raise playground funds by selling wooden trout that people buy, decorate,and return to the school. We then poly and attach to the chain link fences surrounding our playgrounds. Although we unofficially sell them year round, we will again "push" them during the Trout Festival.
This past year was our first and not as organized as could have been, so we are hoping to do a much better job this April.

Pearlie, that is great advice! I now understand what you meant. What a great idea!

Library Mom,

To be honest with you, I'm not quite sure how my school would ever to be able to raise funds by having a float. For us, it would be more of a spirit building, fun activity.

But, it sounds like Debbie's school uses the float and parade as an advertising tool to get the word out in the community that they sell wood cuts of trout (not sure what that is), as well as letting peeps know to save their labels and receipts for their school.

I was thinking if anything, we could advertise the fact that our school has academically placed in the top 8% of the state. This would be more for advertising for school of choice in our public school system, and since our school isn't located in a newer section of the city, sometimes parents forget we exist and our enrollment has been going down. Our district has about 25% of its students choosing school of choice. I wouldn't call it a fundraiser per se, but it would be helpful for us to get more students to attend, thus receiving more funding from the government... more students...more chance of parents volunteering..more money raised for fundraisers, etc.

How's that for long term planning?