We are a Middle School with a Non-Active PTC for the last 5 years. That is until a few of us have stepped forward! We are trying to find ways to raise money and find that in MIDDLE SCHOOL, it is much different as far as involvment goes compared to elementry school.

We wanted to sell 'something' at the monthly school dances. However, the head of the Student Council voiced her opinion that it is how SHE raises money. Therefore, we would like to find various items we can sell. We had thought about GLOW NECKLACES/STICKS - but they do not turn the lights down.

We are dealing with Middle Schoolers and the Student Council head already sells Soda, Water, Popcorn, Snowcones and Candy. Not sure if we can do hotdogs - due to keepingthem warm.

Ideas please!!! Thanks in advance and happy holidays!

Glow items are our big seller, so that's too bad. If you do decide to do hot dogs, you can keep all the hot dogs in large crockpot and just take the buns directly from the bag. That works well and is low fuss.

If you don't feel it's too messy - a hair paint station might be popular. I've never tried it for middle schoolers.

Your best bet might be to have a raffle items where the kids spend $1 to put a ticket in the jar of choice and your draw one item ever so often, saving the biggest one for last.

Also, perhaps you could survey some of the kids. No telling what creative ideas they might come up with.

We had our dances around dinner time and served pizza. The local pizzeria sold us pizzas for 5 bucks each and we sold them to the kids for .75 a slice.
We just had to make sure that the store sliced the pizzas correctly or we would loose money.

We found hot dogs too messy with all the condiments.

I'm not advocating the hot dogs, but I wanted to share what I saw last night. We were at an away game for basketball. One of the student groups did a concession stand.

I always think of a concession stand as a lot of work, lot of stuff. This one was very bare bones, but it seemed to work well for them.

They had two large classroom tables that were practically barren sitting in the hallway outside the gymn. There were a couple copies of a handwritten sign with prices and then:

1) cooler on wheels with the drinks (on the floor)
2) big crock pot with hot dog wieners
3) stack of napkins, bag of buns, bottle of ketchup, bottle of mustard
4) large cardboard box with selection of chips and crunchy snacks
5) medium cardboard box with moderate selection of candies

It wasn't the most attractive display but imagine the ease of setup/cleanup. Load up two-already-packed boxes, a roller cooler, and a small assortment of hot dog supplies. DONE!

Except for dealing with the hot dog wieners and ice, you could pretty much wipe off the table, stick your supplies in a closet until next week, and be done in 2 minutes.

As far as concession stands go, it was one of the most streamlined I'd ever seen at a school event.

Thanks for the ideas. I too wish we could do the GLO-STICKS - it would be a GREAT SELLER - but I appreciate the reasoning behind not dimming the lights too.

Keep the ideas comng and Happy Holidays!

How about school spirit or apparel items?

My Treasurer and Asst. Treasurer both moved on to the middle school this year and brought with them the ideas that were implemented by my group last year. For example, one of the things that we were very interested in pursuing when we realized that we had a new Principal coming in was a new school mascot. We explained how this was suggested a couple of years prior by the then PTO President and that unfortunetely the Principal decided that she did not like any of the suggestions so made the decision herself that the school would be the "stars". The PTO never liked this idea. The new Principal loved the idea of a brand new mascot and ran with the idea. He had the students submit ideas that were voted on by the individula classes, and then the entire school voted on one of the five choices that were decided upon by the staff and PTOers. In the end we became the Huskies. So, once we had a new mascot we needed new apparel. At this point we have T-Shirts, hooded sweatshirts, ballcaps, car magnets, water bottles and are working on adding even more.

The point is that the apparel makes a decent profit, so can be thought of as a fundraiser. I sell it all online, but we always do very well at each of our events. Friday is spirit day at the school, so the kids are always wanting to have the apparel.

So, not sure if someone is already doing this or not, but this is a good way to make funds. As I mentioned, the two members that moved on to the middle school implemented this exact idea and now their Cougar apparel is doing great.

Good luck,
PresidentJim