A couple of other ideas that I remember from a similar auction (I remember because I bought them, and they were great!):
--the art teacher volunteered to meet the student at a local art museum, where she presented the student with a box of crayons or colored pencils and a little "sketchbook" (something she made from a few pieces of construction paper), and then gave the student a 60-90 minute guided tour of the museum. They stopped every now and then to draw pictures of some of the artwork.
--a teacher who was into quilting had the student over to their house to make a 36" square quilt. She asked the student what her favorite color was in advance, and had the quilt squares cut out when the big day came, so they got it stitched together and completed in less than 2 hours.
What a great idea!!!! I wish I could get people at my school to do these kinds of things. I am bringing back the auction after about 4 years and I offered the teachers the option of either a theme basket, a time item or some other item. Only 7 of 30 teachers said they would participate and they all picked a theme basket. We do have a new principal though so I might be able to talk him into something. One of the things I thought would be fun is the karioke (sp?) where people put money in the pot to hear someone sing. If they don't want to sing then they have to match the money in the pot. At church they had done a tri-tip dinner for 8 with Bunco and prizes. I won that item and it sure was fun. We are year round school and blue track is still off so I have about 12 more teachers to ask. Hopefully their response will be better.
I am also trying to come up with a name for our auction. It won't be a live auction and we don't have the demographics to have a true silent auction. Here in CA we can't do the raffle unless we offer tickets for free or go thru alot of paperwork wayyyyyyyyy in advance. So I was going to do a Chinese Auction but to be politically correct I can't call it that either. I have seen them called Penny Auction or Penny Social but that doesn't really fit. Anybody have any ideas???? Help me out please!!!!
Thanks, Pam
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I was the assistant fundraising chair at my younger son's school (a Lutheran school with about 250 students) last year and I had this bright idea for using the principal as a hook for a high bid auction item...here is what I suggested & he agreed: Gourmet Dinner for 8 served by the Principal -- another mom (a friend) loves to cook like I do and she used to have a local catering business so she was advertised as the chef and I was the sous-chef. Everyone at the school already knew that she and I were pretty darn good cooks. Anyways we said we would cook a gourmet meal in the winner's home for up to 8 people and the principal would be the waiter. My friend and I would split the costs of the dinner and wine and dessert etc....we would give them choices to select from for each course too. At the auction -- we had a professional auctioneer (he did it for free)-- and the bidding was going back and forth between two families...when the bid got to $750!!!!! the auctioneer stopped for a moment and looked at the principal, my friend and I and said -- would you be willing to do two dinners if I can get both bidders to agree to pay the price we are at now? We said yes and the bidders did too so the school got $1500!!! Our costs for the meal were roughly $150 each meal which we split. Plus because the bidders had paid so much we did a nice fancy menu (I created it on my computer with those transparent sheets on top of a pretty cream colored card & a silky ribbon) and my friend wrapped handipped strawberries in chocolate for each couple. Both couples LOVED it and are already asking if we will have that item again. The principal wore a white shirt and bow tie and did a great job -- it was so fun.
At my older son's elementary school, we did almost the same thing but I was PTO president there so the hook was "Gourmet Dinner for 6 (learned my lesson that 8 is too much!) served by the Principal and cooked by the PTO President. A friend/neighbor who likes to cook was my sous chef. This item only brought in $250 because it was auctioned so late in the evening -- almost at the end -- and so many had gone home becasue it was late...that is my one piece of advice -- have items like that right at the start of the auction...
For "Teacher time" items we let each teacher decide what she wanted to contribute -- some were sleep overs, some were golf cart rides (our city has over 70 miles of cart paths throughout) to an ice cream parlor or pizza joint for four or so kids, etc. Those were all wildly popular -- some teacher time things did not cost the teacher a penny and some did -- it was totally up to the teacher. PLUS, each class had to donate something to be auctioned -- the room moms were in charge of that and knew at the start of the eyar they woukd have toi come up with something...some did themed baskets (beach, transportation (car games, tourist books, etc) but others did things like quilts, mirrors, benches...I was room mom for my son's class and we did a set of painted glassware -- dishes, cake stand, tumblers, bowls, plates, wine goblets, a decanter, a platter etc and that was very popular...there have been painted adirondack chairs done by classes as well as rocking chairs and tables...some classes did cookbooks or painted pots for gardens; one class did a painted room divider...another did a broken tile mosaic birdbath...some did a paint your own pottery platter that each student did something on...whew, I am tired...did not mean to ramble on so long....
We had a silent auction last year and the items that brought in the most money were art projects that the kids did. Our pto provides one hour art classes for all grades which are taught by parent art docents. For our auction, we had each class work on a project to be auctioned off. We had a mosaic table top from one class, a 8x6 water color mural from another class, a quilt where each child in the class painted a on a panel, note cards that were designed by students, stepping stones, bird houses, etc. Parents in these classes went wild trying to outbid each other. We have not had any teacher involvement in any of our past fundrasiers, but the teachers became excited when they saw the projects and we had half of our teachers sign up to help out at the auction. Two of our male teachers had such a blast bartending that they decided to do it for the entire night! (They were only scheduled for a one hour shift) It was a great way to bring the community together.
I am loving the post that suggests using the special talents of each teacher...maybe a teacher golfing, cooking, guitar, etc. Those are great ideas...thanks! I think I will put together a survey form for the teachers...this should really help. We are so overwhelmed with the tremendous response that we have received from the businesses that we sent letters to, that we are excited about having such a profitable auction this year...p.s. We also had a parent suggest the front row seats for the performances (those should be great items) Thanks again for all the ideas...keep them coming! [img]smile.gif[/img]
A couple of years ago, one of the 2nd grade teachers had her class make those jars of cookie and brownie mixes for our bake sale at our spring carnival. She bought all the ingredients and got the jars for free from some business that had them on clearance. They made 12 and we sold them for $6 each. The teacher and the students were so proud that they had been able to contribute to the fundraising effort and I doubt we would have been able to sell them for that premium price if they hadn't been made by students.
