We use our Girl Scout troops here. We charge parents $1.00 per child and we pay the Girl Scouts a total of $20.00 per meeting. So if there were 5 kids we would pay them $15.00. We let the children have snacks from the hospitality set up for the meeting and we buy supplies like crayons and paper at the beginning of the school year. It has worked wonders for us for the past 3 years and we hope to keep it going.
I also tried to get girl scouts or confirmation candidates who needed a certain amount of volunteer hours. I spoke by phone to the main counsel leader of our area girl scouts and also sent a letter to our CCD program coordinator for the parochial school. I received no replies. I did not go to the high school. That is a good idea.
It could get expensive if your district makes you use school personnel. Yikes! I guess every district is different. Good luck. It is worth it though.
Metzymom, yes snacks and games are certainly needed. We let the kids come into the meeting at the end and they usually polish off all the snacks we bought that no one eats - which seems to be all of it since only a few coming to the meetings seems to take any anyway!!
Three years ago, when I was prez, I used two high school students (one male, one female) who needed community hours to graduate (I also use high school students during fundraisers). They took care of the children, and my husband supervised the high school students. Cost for care? Free.
I did make sure there were games and snacks each month though. Games were provided by the school and snacks were donated by McKee Foods (Little Debbies Snacks) and drinks were donated by local grocery stores (they took turns). Cost? Free.
