Last year we had a Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast in our media center. The PTO Board did all the work, but we used PTO funds to cover the expenses. We asked the teachers for names of parents they wanted us to invite, plus we had names from all our PTO commitees. We sent individual invitations to all those people (well over 150). Since we don't formally track volunteerism, we also put out a general invitation in our school newsletter in case we missed someone. We asked for rsvps so we could plan the food. We were pleasently shocked that over 75 parents (moms & dads) showed up!

We kept the event to one hour, with time for food and visiting, followed by a short program. We thanked committee chairs, those former officers whose youngest children were "graduating" from the school, and the current officers. We had photos of parent involvement running on the media center's big tv during the event. We also quantified the $ value of the # of hours we estimated our parents put in at the school. It was over $35,000 based on $17+/hour. Pretty impressive when you put a $ figure on it. People thought that was cool.

We also posted a list of all the volunteers we had invited in our display case and in the school newsletter, using the child's name. For example, "Susie Smith's Mom, Carol". That way, the kids saw their names along with their parent's. We don't have a formal volunteerism tracking system, so there's a chance we missed someone. But I really think we took great care to identify as many volunteers as possible. In this case, we decided that personal invitations were the best, even at the risk of inadvertantly overlooking someone.

The year before we had only the general invitation and did the event in the evening. About 15 people showed up. I think we'll stick with the new approach.

We do a volunteer luncheon during Volunteer Appreciation Week (April??) at a local restaurant. We get a great dscount from this restaurant so that we don't feel too guilty about spending PTO funds on our volunteers. We invite the principal, teacher rep, board members, committee chairs, and any others that have helped throughout the year.

Hi -- I was interested in what type of functions you all might do for your PTO at the end of the year to recognize your volunteers...a dinner out or something like that? dianna