Try a local high school - they have clubs that require their members to do a certain number of hours of community service, such as the Beta Club and Honor Society. We get a lot of volunteers for our festival this way. You can pair them up or maybe use them along with an adult volunteer. You just have to make sure you account for their hours and turn them in to the High School Organization.
Our school is supported by a local church. It has recently decided to revive its summer festival and donate the proceeds to the school (!). The only caveat is that our PTO must provide the volunteers. Being a small school, we just manage to squeak by pulling off our regular yearly events with our small pool of regular volunteers. This event will last one weekend and require almost every family to pitch in.
For those that put on such events HELP! What tips can you provide to encourage families to volunteer? Each of our families is required to do a certain number of service hours each year as part of their enrollment agreement. The festival will fall at a time when it could be counted for either the previous year or the next school year (the pastor would make that decision). Some families will blow it off and pay the $ penalty, others will just skip the festival and wait for other events they prefer to do throughout the year.
We have thought about upping the hours granted, instead of 1 hr worked = 1 hr granted, making it 1.5 hrs granted or those that sign up early receive 1.5 hrs granted; classrooms that have the most families work by percentage receive bonus hrs (1st, 2nd, 3rd place), etc. Any other ideas???
Info on the church festival -- it's an international event with dancing, food, crafts, etc. We're trying to encourage them to add a "family friendly" event like bounce houses or games for the kids because, frankly, there's nothing for them to do and the festival isn't attracting the crowds it should for the effort that's going into it.
