$1,350.03
That’s how much a class of thirteen 6 to 9 year-olds raised for
with a simple Book & Bake Sale!
If they can do it, you can do it too!
How they did it:
Two weeks ahead of time:
- They hung a sign on the school door asking for donations of books and baked goods for our Haiti fundraiser.
- They placed an empty box in the school entryway for collecting the books.
- They also put a sealed box in the lobby for any impromptu donations.
Day before, set-up:
- The day before the sale they accepted baked goods.
- After school they sorted the books into children and adult piles.
- They organized the children’s books into separate boxes and baskets based on level (picture books, readers, chapter books).
- Everything was set up on tables in our tiny school entryway with a simple pricing system posted.
The Sale:
- The morning of the sale, they set up the baked goods outside the door on a table (it was so cold and snowy that there was no danger of spoilage!).
- The school is on a side street, so they put out a sign on the main road nearby. They also put signs in the grocery store and the library. All signs said clearly that proceeds would be for Haiti.
- The sealed box went to a prominent location on the book table, with a basket nearby with a few small bills and coins for making change.
- They hung a Haitian flag and also posted some information about Partners in Health so any interested people could read more about where their money would be going.
Post-Sale:
- I helped them sort through the leftover books and we separated the ones that were fairly recent and looked pretty new.
- We took these “good” leftovers to our local bookstore so the owner could buy any that would work for her used book section. She ended up buying almost all of them, and even gave us more than her normal cash price since we were doing this for Haiti! (Be sure to let a bookstore know that you are selling for Haiti)
- The kids packed up the other books and we put them in storage for our annual school yard sale.
Counting:
- Practical math lesson: The children counted the cash and were SO excited, especially when they found a $100 bill in the box!
- Their teacher counted the checks for privacy reasons (NOTE: For ease of accounting, we made sure people made their checks out directly to Partners in Health and not to our school).
- I took the cash to the bank and traded it in for a cashiers check made out to Partners in Health.
And voilà! Not a whole lot of effort really, but now we have a nice donation to send off to Partners in Health and the kids feel GREAT!
Why not try it with your school?
For more fundraising ideas, please read Help Your Kids Help Haiti.
Do your kids have questions about Haiti and the relief effort there? Do they want to know more about how to mobilize their schools and communities to help?
Then they might be interested in participating in (or even just watching) an online discussion tonight with Dr. Jim Yong Kim, physician, president of Dartmouth College, and one of the founders of Partners in Health (PIH), a leading aid organization in Haiti.
My good friend (and the most well-informed person I know) Wishy, just let me know about this great opportunity for students of all ages (elementary through grad school). It will take place tonight at 5:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Students can even send in questions ahead of time by email to sdhr at dartmouth dot edu. The subject line should contain the words: “JYK TALK: Your name, your school”.
The talk will happen via live online video stream at the PIH website:
5:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
LIVE VIDEO STREAM LINK
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PS. Our “Book and Bake Bonanza for Haiti” is scheduled for this Thursday. I’ll let you all know how it goes! If you are interested in some ideas on how to get your kids involved raising money for Haiti, please read my post: Help Your Kids Help Haiti.
My children’s elementary class is organizing an emergency “Book and Bake Bonanza” to take place next week. They are frantically trying to collect books and baked goods to sell in order to raise money for Haiti. Obviously money is needed NOW, so they must act quickly and there is no time for an elaborate fundraiser.
Will used books sell? We don’t know, but we need to try something and one of the kids came up with the idea. Anything we can earn will help, no matter how small.
(UPDATE: The result of our little fundraiser? A whopping $1,350.03!! Read here for more details about how we did it.)
Why not organize a speedy fundraiser for your children’s school? If you homeschool, then combine a quick study of Haiti with a smaller scale family-style fundraiser.
Here are some quick and easy fundraising ideas:
- Bake sale
- Lemonade or hot chocolate or cookie stand in your driveway
- Garage Sale (if you can put it together fast, yard sales can be very time consuming)
- Used book sale
- Raffle something off
- Car wash (or an interior car detailing day if it is too cold for a car wash, or you don’t want to use water)
- A simple donation box in your school or workplace
- A penny drive in your children’s school (Thanks very much to Jen for this simple yet effective idea!)
And here are a few less obvious ones that could possibly be put together fairly rapidly:
- Board Game Competition: Charge an entry fee for each team or individual. If you want, give a small portion of this as a prize, or give a donated prize.
- Dog Wash (if you can do it indoors or you live somewhere warm).
- How Many in the Jar?: Fill a jar with M&Ms, marbles, rocks, anything small! Have people guess how many objects are in the jar. Sell guess forms for $1 or $2 a piece and split the earnings with the person who gets the closest.
- Show Up in Your Jammies Day: (For schools) Sell tickets entitling the purchaser to wear your pajamas to school for a day. Encourage teachers and administrators to join in also. Sell donuts and bagels before school for breakfast.
- Traveling Hobo Band: I can’t really explain this one, but it is pretty funny and spontaneous. Read more here.
- Windshield Washing
Who to give to?
The NPR website published a list of aid organizations that are helping Haiti during this disaster.
Remember, even a small amount of money can make a big difference!
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Don’t underestimate the power of even a simple bake sale. In December, my children’s Montessori School class raised over $870 for Heifer International with a one day bake sale!
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