Today's fundraiser is for..........

I hate the fundraisers. The main reason is when the kids are little (4-7) they are told that they will get a prize if they sell a certain amount of fundraising stuff. It is usually some little junk thing that breaks the day they get it, but they all want it so the parents get put on the spot to make their kids happy and do the fundraising! I think that the regular school fundraising goes to the special school activities, not to the sports. I also don't like that the sports do fundraising. They should just do tag days and not have to sell anything. As parents, we spend a fortune so our kids can be in sports. Between the special shoes and equiptment, sometimes uniforms have to be purchased and on top of that the fundraisers. It makes it almost impossible for some students to participate because of lack of funds. Right now I have 2 boys in football. I had to buy shoes for them ~ $90 worth for one and luckily the younger one fit into the older ones last years. I still have to buy them the underarmor to wear for the games now that it is colder outside. We had to sell 10~ $5 lottery cards each! and 5 ~ $20 coupon books each. Right now when my family sees me coming they run the other way!! Next up is wrestling season and I will be selling 50~$1 lottery tickets for that. Then basketball where we have to buy the uniforms and shoes before the child even finds out if they are on the team. When my oldest tried out the uniform was $65 and he didn't even make the team. He did get to keep the shoes, but didn't need new shoes! It is crazy and I think that with consession stands and tag days, the teams will raise enough money needed.

I don't really have a problem with the fund raising. I would just like to know what we are raising the money for. It just seems that all we hear is for the school. I would like to know what we are spending the money on and I want a say in what it is spent on.

here.. the fundraiser stuff the sprite brings home is for the school itself.. so everyone who attends, is asked to participate. i dont mind it. what i DO mind.. is the subtly FORCED madatory "donations" made for teacher gifts. while they say it is voluntary blahblah.. when you DONT donate towards the gift, yer kid is excluded obviously.. and this makes for hurt feelings all over the place. the requested "donation" is usally 5 dollars per student towards some gift basket.. two or three times a year. and while it dont sound like alot.. with the economy the wa it is, and some families struggling just to keep food on the table.. it IS. they should just have the kids work together on a project in their art classes or something that doesnt cost anyone anything. itd be more personal of a gift anyway. i mean really.. just how many 100 dollar baskets of pasta does a freakin teacher need??