We had the rally--the chair gave the speech, and while she's not exactly as animated as I would like, at least no one threw anything at us! They definitely perked up when they heard the prizes.
Wish us luck--if we kill on this fundraiser we may actually be able to put this baby to bed!!!
Kids like the competition. Possibly set up some races like the 100 meter, 200 meter, etc. for minimal cash prizes or gift cards.
Also, gifts to video game exchange stores (like game stop, e-games) would appeal to older kids.
We have an arcade type place that the kids go and play many different types of games, some earning tickets. A gift card to somewhere like that would be an enticement.
When I was in high school we had a walk a thon and they had some local athletes and retired one come and motivate us. We also did this at the local race track to make it cool. I don't know if any of these ideas are options for you but I thought I'd try. Good luck.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
Since these kids won't be getting a lot out of a playground I was thinking of going the "help our community" route too! Especially since a lot of these kids have younger brothers, sisters and cousins coming up the ranks. These kids aren't a bad lot, but you know how it is. A walk-a-thon for something that doesn't benefit them isn't exactly "cool" material!
We wanted to do T-Shirts, but just didn't have the money, so we're doing water bottles with our school name/mascot on them instead. The iPod is being offered for the upper grades only--we figured it might sweeten the deal.
Believe me when I say the fundraising for this playground can NOT end soon enough!
Another thing, now that I think of it, We did have prizes earmarked specifically for the 8th graders to entice them a little more to participate. So you might want to offer specific prizes just for them too. I think(if my memory serves me correctly since we did this 3 years ago) we had any 8th grader with 5 pledges or more were eligible for these prizes, "xyz" and ...
When we had our walkathon, we did it with both our schools, our k-4 and our 5-8 grades. We kicked off our walkathon with an assembly where we explained that we are all part of many different communities. Family, friends, town, school, etc... Participating in the walkathon was a way to take pride in our schools and help in the process of taking care of our school community. The idea was to make these 7-8th graders feel that they were helping make a contribution that would help all students today, tomorrow and in the future at our schools.
We had earmarked the funds we were raising to go towards upgrading technology in our schools, although we did not know at the time what specifically we would be upgrading. We explained where the funds would be used and that it was important that we all worked together.
We gave each student in both schools a t-shirt with a slogan that represented our school pride (600 students) and had everyone wear their t-shirts when we walked. It was fantastic! The kids all signed each others shirts. We had local newspapers on hand and had a couple of good articles and great photos in the newspapers. The kids were all pretty excited. Now of course, we had our share of 7 & 8th graders who do not think it is "cool" and that is just the age and mentatlity of 7 & 8 graders. Hope this helps.
