When you send your kids to a Catholic or Church school you know there's tuition and you're told up front that there is a certain level of fundraising required. This is to help offset tuition and school expenses. In some larger parishes the fundraising isn't as important as their Church off sets some of the school expenses. Unfortunately we are not only a small Parish, but also poor one, the bulk of the offset from our Parish comes from the parents weekly donations to the Church.
Our school has different levels of fundraisers from candy sales and raffles to huge mandatory ones. Mandatory projects require bodies, people volunteering large quantities of time to simple get whatever needs doing done. Bingo is a year round project. In the spring we have Goods/Services Auction and Tricky Tray and in the Fall we do an American Girl Event
Our American Girl Fashion Show is this weekend. Five shows over 3 days for 1000 girls, Moms and Dads. Not only do parents volunteer, girls from every grade are also involved either as models or behind the scenes getting the girls ready, keeping the little ones busy and entertained between their turns down the runway. Our gymnasium is turned into American Girl Central. And if I do say so myself the parent volunteers do an incredible job transforming basketball courts into a catering hall with a huge fashion runway.So guess what committee I'm on?--LOL We're getting down to the wire. Three nights of set up and three days of shows. Hundreds of hours leading up to the next six days. Then it's back to normal, hopefully at least :)
12 comments:
My niece goes to Catholic school also. Lots of fundraising and volunteering involved. Sounds like you'll have a busy few days, but I'm glad things will be slowing down eventually!
My crazy week was last week getting ready for the new fire station to open. Good luck with the event. I hope you raise lots of money.
LOVE American Girls. Katie is nearly 13 (shudder) and has two, but wants two more. We'd so totally be all over that gig!
I have two in private high school. Let me know how that "back to normal soon" thing works out for you. ;)
I used to work at a Jesuit middle school that fed into a Catholic high school! Total hippie Protestant... and love the parish system.
Good luck with your fundraiser. I love hearing about families and schools.
Dev, Catholic school is a great environment for kids, I'm always amazed by how involved the kids are too.
Rosie, thanks for the encouragement, this is a major fundraiser for us and we need it :0
Jen, It's incredible how involved girls get in the American Girl thing. I have some information about an event in Lancaster, I'll email it to you :)
Lisabea, Hey, I can hope "back to normal" happens sometime soon--LOL. At least I'll be down to 3 committee meetings a month for a while.
Kate, like I told Dev, it's such a different type of school environment, and we love it :)
Hey Jen,
I just realized I don't have your email address. If you interested there's an AG event in November in your area...
Hands-on House Children's Museum
November 16-18, 2007
717-569-KIDS or www.handsonhouse.org
And I think there's another in the Philadelphia area next spring or early summer (not on the AG calendar yet)
Thanks, Tara. Katie gets the American Girl magazine so I'm guessing that info is in there, but she maybe didn't see it.
BTW - I have an email link on my profile. :o)
I went to Catholic school.
Fund raising was part of school life too.
I can remember baking cookies and selling them door to door in order to get money for a volleyball net.
(I was the captain of the volleyball team, so this was close to my heart, lol.)
You are such an involved parent. Your parish and school are lucky to have you.
Good luck on the fundraising. That sounds like a great idea. I have TONS of American Girl Stuff all over my house. My daughter's loved it.
Here in Ontario - don't know about the rest of Canada - Catholic Schools get the same amount of funding as the public schools.
Years ago, when Ryan was still in high school, most of his friends went to the Catholic School. He decided he wanted to go there too. He had to come up with a resason as to why he should be allowed to transfer schools. He had to write a letter and he explained in his letter that he wanted to explore his Catholic roots. That cracked me up since we don't have any Catholic roots. He went there for a year and transferred back since he found the school to strict for him. He was always a good student so I didn't have to worry about him, but if he was a discipline problem kind of student, I would have insisted he stay and learn more about his Catholic 'roots'. *g*
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