Forget bake sales, cookie dough sales, or going door-to-door with a catalog of items. One local middle school is trying a new -- and brutally honest -- approach.
The Sebastian Middle School Parent Teacher Organization sent students home this week with a flyer advertising an "alternative fundraiser." Instead of requiring students to sell -- and parents and neighbors to buy -- unwanted and often overpriced items, the PTO is straight-up asking for donations.
"Instead of sending students home with a catalog of items to sell door-to-door, which requires collecting money and delivery goods for which SMS only keeps 40 percent of the price, the PTO is trying something new this year," the flyer said.
The tongue-in-cheek flyer offered parents a few suggestions about how to determine how much to donate:
$10 __ I do not want to bake, so here is the money I would have spent on cupcakes.
$25 __ I do not want to hit up friends, family or co-workers, so here is the money I would have spent on wrapping paper
$50 __ I do not want to walk, swim or run in any activity that has the word 'THON' in it. Here is the money I would have spent on my child's 'FREE' T-shirt.
$100 __I really wouldn't have helped anyway, so here is a $100 donation to forgive me for not showing up at PTO meetings or events.
and finally, $__ I am making this donation to express my appreciation for having nothing to buy, sell, or do except fill out this form
Talk about straight to the point!
Unlike sales drives, the flyer said 100 percent of the donations will benefit the school directly. But if the school doesn't raise about $2,000, it warns, "We may still have a fall catalog fundraiser. Just saying."
Read the flyer below:
