Our teachers did their own baskets as well. I offered ideas for themes but they got the donations from their classes. I only offered to wrap the basket IF they weren't able to or were just not creative whatsoever. I only had to wrap 6 baskets out of 45 teachers.
We only made $96 on our highest basket (Harry Potter) but it was our first year and we are a Title I school with 90% on free lunch.
What is a Prize Walk? Is it similar to the cake walk but with donated items as prizes?
Our teachers were so excited we were doing this they handled their own baskets. Each class had a theme and parents were asked to bring in items. A couple of teachers had their hubbies to build decrotive sleds for their items.Of course they do need help getting the items in order. The lowest basket went for $40, but it was a small basket. The largest only went for $200.00 (the elementary across the county usually gets more than that), we went ahead and got donations for our Prize Walk. That is always a hassle because only a few people want to help. I also thought that there would be alot of gripes from the parents. It was stressed that this was optional and it would be helpful. I didn't hear one gripe. I was really pleased with it.
It was quite a bit of effort to collect items and put together class baskets for our last auction. The best one went for $75. It seems a couple parent donations per class would have brought in the same without all the hassle. Plus they bought the baskets, some of which were $20 each.
I realize it helped advertise the event and get people involved, but it was a real headache for those in charge of it. (And they aren't very enthusiastic about doing it again.)