A Plea to the PTA - Can't We Have a Fundraiser Like This?

by Kim D.

This year my husband put his rather large foot down. After two years of Mother's Day Out and another two years of private school pre-kindergarten, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that we live in a nice Houston suburb with a top-rated public school. All of my arguments couldn't trump the simple fact that we would be saving over $7K this year if our son went to kindergarten down the street at the public elementary school.

With one week completed, the orientation process continues. My son is struggling with timed work completion, supposedly a necessary skill needed for all the heavy future testing he will be subjected to, while I am adapting to the wonderful world of the PTA. Honestly, I want to be a supportive parent with my time which is why I volunteered for the kindergarten workroom which I assume will be running copier machines, collating massive stacks of papers, and testing my stapling skills - the busy work which parents can do leaving the teacher more time to actually teach.

However, I can already see the long list of fundraisers scheduled via the PTA. The first begins next week as we are tasked to sell Yankee Candles. This means I will be purchasing tons of candles and passing them along to friends and family. Yes, I know I could take my son door-to-door selling to neighbors, but the problem is on our street there are at least five kindergarteners who will be doing the same.

I hate to be a Debbie "downer," but I would love to receive a PTA note like this one recently sent to Dallas middle school parents:

This fundraising effort is an alternative for those parents who don't fit the traditional hands-on role in the school. With many households needing two, full-time working parents to afford the bills, this laid-back approach has great appeal.  In fact, when one Dallas mom, Dee Wise Heinz, posted the school's alternative fundraiser letter to Facebook, it went viral. 

“My first thought was, ‘A fundraiser already?’” Heinz, a mother of three, told ABC News. “But after reading it, my husband and I got such a chuckle out of it and we thought it was so refreshing.” 

The fundraising letter cheekily asks for straight monetary donations instead of asking parents to engage in the traditional school fundraisers like bake sales, galas and walk-a-thons.

“I just shared it with my friends … because most parents can relate to it,” Heinz said. “When it started to go viral, I called the PTA person and she explained that they’d done this for two or three years and it was a big success.” 

Heinz says she believes fundraisers serve a “valuable purpose,” but just thought the letter was a fresh and funny approach to raising money for schools. “There have been a few critics saying if you do this, you don’t have an interest in supporting your child,” Heinz said. “That’s not the case.” 

“I don’t want to diminish the value of fundraisers, but time is a valuable resource also, so I appreciated having the option,” she said. “With three kids, there’s never just one fundraiser and they’re never just that simple, so it does take a lot more time than you realize.”