are you talking about charging so many tickets to play the game and then the children are getting their prizes at the games? If that's the case the amount your buddy is wanting to charge is absolutely ridiculous. You can not charge 16 tickets to play a game.......regardless of what the prize they get is. The object is to get the kids to play as many games as possible to cover the cost of prizes, not limit the amount of games they can play to cover the cost.....that defeats the purpose of the carnival.....fun for the kids!! If you are worried about covering the cost my advice would be to do a redemption center instead of prizes at the games. You have an easier and better chance to cover the cost because there you can charge 16 tickets for a certain level prize. To charge that much for 1 game doesn't allow chilldren to be able to play all the games. It is a fundraiser and a big one but you have to keep the concept of kids having fun your priority with a carnival, not how much you make. You can do other things to up the cost of how much you make without limiting child play. Themed baskets from each classroom, silent auctions....so on so on [img]smile.gif[/img] As far as the little tiny prizes......parents hate them so but you have to remember, esp. if you have that high of a free lunch number, sometimes anything a child gets even the smallest most non important item to an adult can bring that child such happiness, proudness, accomplisment and so forth. I think the way your buddy wants to approach it isn't the best way to go. Carnivals are hard hard HARD work but if you volunteer with it you gotta suck it up and bust your hind end.
Mommae, could you be a little more clear about the cost? I don't think I quite understand. How much do you charge per ticket? Are you saying that they pay for a game and then get a prize of roughly the same value? When you say, "she believes we should start at 16 and go up from there", what is 16? 16 tickets worth 25 cents each?
At our festival, people pay 20 cents a ticket if they buy them ahead of time, and 25 cents a ticket the day of the festival. So a game would cost 20 or 25 cents, if you win you get one prize ticket and you can trade in a prize ticket for something valued at approvixmately 20 cents.
We found that most kids (esp. older kids) liked to save their prize tickets and go for the more expensive items. We have some little stuff but it's mostly because kids would have leftover tickets after picking out a big ticket item.
Well the reason she wants to increase the amount of tickests is because she is trying to eliminate all the little prizes I believe to make it easier on herself. I know I should appreciate all the help that she has given, but I don't believe that this is good choice. I feel that parents, who by the way are very supportive of the PTA and donate a lot of time and anythiong else we ask for, are going to feel that the PTA is taking advantage of the students. I can understand that if we paid 23.00 we should cahrge 8 tickets or maybe 10 but I feel that should be the highest. Opinions PLEASE! Thanks
What's the reason for the sudden increase? Why is this person all of a sudden having issues?
I've no experience with carnivals so I don't know the logistics, but if I went to ANY carnival and saw the prizes start at 16 tickets I'd have something to say about it. That's just excessive.
Help!! I am the Pres. of our PTA at our elementary school. When I first came to the school I tried tiog et them to do a small carnival and was told it was to much work. I became Pres 3 yrs ago and started one. We did really good ( not much profit but the idea was for everyone to have fun and not go broke). In the past we have purchased prizes from oriental trading, but this year we went to a local Dollar General and purchased some prizes. Now the one person that I have always been able to depend on (she has worked the prize redemption booth 2 yrs in a row)and myseklf are butting heads as to how many tickets things should be. In previous years we had prizes for 1,3 5 10, and higher up till I believe 30 now all of a sudden she believes we should at 16 and go up from there.I think this is to many like I said before we went to dollar general and things coast between 1 and 3 dollars. I hate confrontation and would like to know how many tickets ya'll think would be fair. I am running out of time our Family Fun Day is on May 8th. I guess I should mention that we have approx 950 students, and that we are about 75%free or reduced lunch. As I mentioned before, thiswas never intended to be a fundraiser, but the idea was for everyone to beable to have fun.Thanks for any and all suggestions.
