School has been in session just a little over a week, and we are already being inundated with fundraising crap. Tuesday DD came home with Puget Sound "Entertainment" coupon books that she is expected to sell 5 of (not much stuff in there for North Bend: QFC, ACE and Twedes. Great for Seattle and Bellevue) They have 3 pages listing prizes, but I can't find the dang selling price ... she thinks $25), and then today she came home with the walk-a-thon pledge sheet and a letter that they need to raise $44,000 for the walk-a-thon this year! In the spring thre will be silent auctions for kids artwork, and themed class baskets of stuff parents donate. Why can't they just say they need and extra $150 per kid and accept payments of $50 each trimester instead of hitting us with all this crap? This year will be extra bad because DD goes to science camp in the spring at the Olympic Park Institute and I think that costs about $250. When DS went, I made so many dishes for pasta feeds and bake sales, bought gift cards, valentines cards, wreaths, green gear, butter braids, t-shirts, silent auction crud .... All stuff I did not need. If I had just paid the cash I spent on all that crap (which gets divided equally among all the students going), I could have sent nearly 3 kids to camp! (and I was still approached about providing a scholarship for a less fortunate student, and sucker me, I donated another $50)
At least the middle school asks for the cash up front to be paid the week before school starts along with the PE uniform, ASB cards and such. They have an art fee, a lab fee and club fees. Anything else they need they raise through school dances and such events.
