Dear GraftonStPrez ,
First off I want to tell you that to get ready for some of the hardest but most rewarding work you will ever do . It takes avery special person to take on a task like that .
I totaly understand the part about working on the PTO in a low income underpriviliged area , my sons school is the same way we are located in a very low income area and with times as tough as they are it is hard for most people in general. The first thing you may want to do is look in to things like box tops for education (
www.btfe.com) and my coke rewards
www.mycokerewards.com/school) they cost your school nothing to join and even parents on a low income can help with this . All you do is save the box tops and the reward codes off the caps of coke and out of the cases and you can earn money for you school that way . You may also want to look at fund raisers of the past and see what did well in your area .
At our school we do get a lot of donations from local places .Not only do they help us out with money but they also help with items for our carnival and even provide items for our treat bags at school parties . Dentist are happy to help with tooth brushes and lots of businesses will help you get other items needed like pencils, stickers things like that .
Focus on your schools strenghts. If you can get several parents to help out with calling or writing donation letters that is a huge help but if not small numbers of people can do just as much. We had maybe 3 to 5 parents who did most of the work last year and we got a lot accomplished . But my best advice is to start early and do you home work (so to speak ) on any idea you get .
Best of luck to you !
