I would say continue with your fair. If you make it a community event with activities for kids and adults, you should draw lots of people. If you make it annual, folks will look forward to it and mark their calendars. If you can swing the cost, you could add some of the bouncy air filled games. There is probably a company in a nearby larger town or you may find a national company on this website. Something like that might draw people even outside your community if you advertise a little. For our spring carnival we charge 25cents a game ticket and the games cost 1 or 2 tickets to play. We have a restaurant where we serve hot dogs, pizza and pop and a bake shop for pie and cake by the slice, ice cream, floats, and bake sale items. We also do a raffle. We usually make between $4000 and $5000.
If you want something different, how about a auction for services. People donate services like making dinner, babysitting, lawnmowing and people bid on them. You could have the kids participate with yardwork, help cleaning out your garage, etc. Aunt Martha's apple pie might make you a tidy sum!!
I forgot to mension our school is k-8th..
Our main fundraiser is the childrens fair, set up by the board of education. We have to go to town for this ( an hour to the nearest town)
I started a holloween trick or treat for our kids last year. We made the front of houses out of large cardboard boxes, lined them up like a neighborhood (at the school)we have a cake auction,potluck, and huanted house that the kids put together, This worked out great. The kids were safe and inside the whole time trick or treating.Bigger communities can get thier local businesses to join, they can hand out pencils, erasers, etc. with thier logo on it. I would like to expand this ideal with games and so forth, so we can make this into a fund raiser for the school. Last year we did not charge becouse we had no ideal what kind of outcome it would be. For our small community it turned out well. any suggestions? thank you [img]smile.gif[/img]