Our PTO has a committee and a parent who do our school photos instead of a professional company and we give vouchers to families who can't afford the pictures. Our Principal determines who the eligible families are and sends out the vouchers and then only the photographer and one other person know who receives the free photos. It works out well and I know the families appreciate it.

This has been a hard call for me as President because I personally feel that parents should know where their fundraising is going; therefore, this year we were very clear! All our food nights and activities in November went to the "sunshine fund" which our school counselor can request money from. We hold a "Giving Tree Breakfast" FREE to everyone (we get donations from local places) and families take a "dolphin" off the tree to help a child at our school or put cash in a present box etc. It is one of our favorite events & solves all my inner struggles!

We try to make most our event as Free Family events, such as
Free Family Game Night in September as Kick off,
Free Grabdparent Day breakfast and free photo session in November
Free Family Reading Night in February
Free Family Movie Night in April

However, we do have couple event that we so called ' break even events ' such as carnival $5 per bracelet with unlimited game. Cookies with Santa in December $5/child, parents are free, which cover craft, hot cocoa, cookies, photo with Santa /Grinch.

At these events, we will try to give free pass to students/families in need. The best way to do it, I guess is to seeking advise from school counselor if your school has one. She/he will be the best person who knows every students and who need helps the most. The hardest part is what is the cut off number. 10 , 15 or 20? Talk and discuss with your school counselor may help. We want every child able to make it, we also do not want to over the budget. That is the hardest part for me. The main part is , we here for the children, all children in the school, no matter what families they came from. Every child deserve to have all the fun that we planned

Thanks!

Our PTO has purchased Christmas gifts to help support a local organization. We pay for children to attend field trips if the parents can't afford it and we have paid for school supplies for less fortunate chilren. We are having some parents question the money spent on the Christmas gifts. Therefore, some of the PTO officers are rethinking this project and looking more closely at our by-laws before voting next time.

We do set aside funds for coats and shoes for needy children. Warm children are happy children and better learners. Teachers and DFCS screen the families.

We don't set aside money but 1 year we did a coat drive. This year we received a
flip-video from a company just as a gift to the PTO. It was a couple days before Christmas break so I asked a social worker on staff if she knew a child who might not get anything for Christmas, she came up with a name pretty quickly so we gave that child the flip-video. I try to make sure we help as much as possible even though we don't have the money to do so.