To be honest with you I don't really care how low the response was I think that kids should learn to volunteer and donate to others that have a need for the sheer joy of volunteering. However, if they are truly only motivated to do it for a reward then I like the raffle idea or the principal kisses a pig theory. That is pretty crummy to only give kids that donate a lot a reward. After all, the kid whose family can only afford to share one can of food may be giving more of themselves than the family who can afford to give 20 cans.
How about offering a raffle? If a child brings 1 can, they get 1 ticket, if they bring 2 cans, they get 2 tickets, etc. Everyone (that brings a can) has a chance to win a prize, regardless if they brought 20 cans or 1 can. Now as far as prizes, you could solicit from businesses.
Suggestions for prizes:
free meal (to a fast food place, or even at the school).
extra time at recess
first in line for lunch (all week)
no homework day
GC to video store
GC to movies
If your food drive is a week long, you could pick a winner each day. The last day would be the better prizes.
I think most people were upset or bothered by the fact that we were soliciting money from local businesses to buy our kids (or the kids who successfully participated) a t-shirt. I think if the t-shirts were donated by someone wihtout us asking for the money, people would not have been so negative about the idea. I think people were thinking if we were going to be asking for money, that money should go to help the needy families. I mean, you're probably talking about a $1,000 for t-shirts. That could buy about 4,000 cans if you caught them on sale.
I think i would try the school wide goal and have the principal or staff member do something, that way it is atrue team effort and no child can be left out of the fun!
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
Last year were you met with any resistance over this? Are more people in favor or against this?
Of course this is just my personal thoughts, but if running something & giving rewards brings in 2000 additional cans of food then I would be all for it. That would be the bottom line for me. I think being able to help more people in need is more important then bickering over which kids get a T-shirt. It is just a T-shirt.
That being said... I would still try to get the principal to kiss the pig if they meet their goal.
That way all the children can feel they helped accomplished something.
I would like to get some feedback from some of you devoted PTO moms/dads on an issue we had at our school.
Every year, our school does a can food drive before Thanksgiving and we donate food baskets (usually to needy children and their families within the school district) Sometimes we have a decent turnout, sometimes we don't. The chairperson this year proposed an idea that a school did last year. They sent home a letter stating if their child brought 20 non-parishable food items, they would get a free t-shirt (the t-shirt would have CHAIN gang (children helping all in need)on it. Then, they sent out a letter to local businesses asking for monetary donations to fund the t-shirts that would be given out to those that brought the 20 items.
This idea was proposed yesterday at our meeting and was met with much resistance. Some said it wasn't fair for the kids who were not able to bring the food, others had a problem with us asking for money to pay for shirts to give out and some were just against having an incentive for kids volunteering, saying that volunteer work should be free and we should teach our kids to do things without expecting something in return. While I think we all agree with those objections to some extent, the truth is they got almost 3000 cans of food last year when they are used to getting barely 1000. The principal suggested that she would bring a pig to school and kiss it if we met our goal giving the kids a little incentive, but a FREE incentive. Guess this might be a question of which is the worst of 2 evils?
I just wanted you guys to share your thoughts.
Thanks
