We had a Read-A-Thon this past year. We did it in conjuction with the literacy committee (teachers) at school and did it during Reading week in February (actually, we ran it for 2 weeks); our theme was Fairy Tales. We made up t-shirts (we had a student contest to design the front), and had sponsors pay $250 for their logo on the back, or $100 for just their name. We also let "donors" of prizes be on the t-shirt. We had BIG prizes (~$100) for the top 8 money makers (bike, ipod, a stay at a resort, portable DVD player, $100 Walmart GC, digital camera, family game pack, and $50 GC to Meijer/3 Gameboy games). What we did is the person that made the most $$ got first pick, then 2nd, and so on. We had prizes for the top class in $$ and in minutes read. We also had envelopes made up with the instructions and a sponsor form on it. Reading logs were separate. We did have a kick-off assembly, where I introduced the prizes. I also gave out prizes for $25, $50, and $75 raised. All together, we netted $12K. I would have liked to have more sponsors, but I did get most of the prizes donated. I think I only had to buy about $250 worth of prizes, the envelopes, and the t-shirts. The t-shirts were the expensive part.
