We do Gift Basket raffles at our school in conjunction with our Fall Festival, and I have to say that ours are extremely successful! This may be because we have been doing them for several years, so people know they are good and get excited about them. Last year we had 16 different themed baskets. This included the usuals, such as 'kitchen', 'garden', 'boy stuff', 'girl stuff', 'fishing', etc. A new theme that was a big hit was the 'Night out/Night in' basket. Parents from that class donated Blockbuster gift certificates, wine glasses, cocoa mix, popcorn, chocolates. Then a couple of enthusiastic and enterprising moms went around town and got DONATIONS from local businesses for dinner for 2 (from about 5 different restaraunts), 1/2 day at a spa, 2 passes to Wild Adventures amusement park, manicure and pedicure,and MORE! I recommend doing this basket, even if it's the only one you do!
For all classroom gift basket raffles, I would suggest that you let the teachers, students and parents know that if there are not enought items donated to make a really good basket, their items will be combined with another basket. The students take pride in 'their' basket and will remind their parents to send in items. Also, if you are going to do this on a yearly basis, you want the reputation of having good baskets that are not skimpy.
[ 09-06-2004, 10:05 PM: Message edited by: lost at sea ]