We had our Kindergarten Orientation this past Thursday and we put the names of all of the new Kindergarten students into a basket and had our new principal draw the name of the winner during the orientation. It was really a nice touch and a great welcome for those new parents coming in. We gave away the Kindergarten tips, the Flat Earth crisps and the Jump In magazines. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and the family that won the Leapster was thrilled.
Yeah, it's up to you guys. But the recommended approach (for the Leapster) is to focus on your kindergarten families and use a Leapster giveaway/raffle as a way to help make your welcoming events more successful and fun. Great first impression.
(For Fremont -- the Leapster program is one of a series of "Freebies" that we've had over the past several months (with more to come). In this case, the Leapfrog folks generously gave 1,000 Leapsters to 1,000 parent groups (and PTO Today added tips on welcoming new kinder parents, etc.). That sign-up was back in the spring. Definitely pays to be on our email lists (top right of the home page) and definitely pay even more to be a PTO Today Plus group (Plus groups get first dibs at these freebies). Hope that helps explain. Leapfrog did another program with their Fly pen for middle schools. We had a great Toys R Us gift card program last spring, as well as big give-aways from Vick's (the hand sanitizers) and Flat Earth healthy chips. Kind of cool.)
I thought the point of the raffle was to get info for volunteers and to help build your PTA membership.
I'm going to do it at the back to school open house and give KG parents 2 opportunities to win. I'm going to use tickets and at the end of the event do a drawing. No money involved, they get their tickets by #1 visiting their child's classroom and #2 by stopping by the PTA table and filling out an information form. No pressure. If they choose to volunteer or join PTA after the event, GREAT, but if not at least I have their info so I can check back with them later in the year.
I have to go to school on Monday and find mine, but my plan was to use it to encourage people to fill out their volunteer forms. I was going to give them until the day after the kindergarten open house, then put the names of all the K parents who completed their volunteer surveys in a hat and pick one.
I don't know if there are restrictions on using it to raise money from Leapster, but you may have state laws governing raffles that you need to follow if you sell tickets.
