We held our first movie night this summer as an outdoor movie on the side of the school. We hosted it more as a family fun night more so than a fundraiser. Dinner, movie and good old fashioned picnic games were included in the price of $5.00 per person or $20 per family. The dinner was hot dog, chips and watermelon. Concessions were also sold with traditonal movie items such as popcorn, junior mints, dots, hot tamales, pop and water. We really tried to keep the prices down so that we didn't "nickel and dime" the parents one more time.

What all the kids seem to be talking about most are the picnic games! The sack race, three legged race, etc. We had kids games and then we had parents with the kids. This was a great way to get the parents involved with the kids.

We plan on another movie night this fall when we will have to have it inside. That one will be a pajama party. By the way, we showed Monsters,Inc and all the kids were happy to watch it, as well as the grandparents who normally wouldn't watch such a movie.

Good Luck!

We used Family Movie Nights at our K-8 school (Catholic) and always held a double feature. The first one was a rated G movie--the second was a PG movie. Here is the verbage from our First Movie Night:

Catholic Schools Week Celebration
Family Night at the Movies!

Showing Thursday, January 29, 2004

All OLPH families are invited to attend. Bring blankets and pillows and a snack if you’d like. The eighth graders will also have the snack bar open with hot dogs, drinks and lots of treats for sale.

The movie is free, but we ask that you please not drop your child(ren) off without supervision. We’ll have enough to manage without worrying about which children have escaped from the gym!

If you are attending the second feature, please meet in advance of 7:30 in the cafeteria to give families leaving from the first feature enough time to depart. A description of these movies is listed below. If you find any of the material unsuitable for your family, please join us for other Catholic Schools Week activities.


Alice in Wonderland
rated (G)
movie time: 6:00 pm sharp!

Disney’s rendition of Lewis Carroll’s famous book appears for the first time on DVD.

On a golden afternoon, young Alice follows a White Rabbit, who disappears down a nearby rabbit hole. Quickly following him, she tumbles into the burrow - and enters the merry, topsy-turvy world of Wonderland! Memorable songs and whimsical escapades highlight Alice's journey, which culminates in a madcap encounter with the Queen of Hearts - and her army of playing cards!

Radio
rated (PG) for mild language and thematic elements
movie time: 7:30 pm
Starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ed Harris
This is the decades-long story of the relationship between a prominent high school football coach (Harris) in a small South Carolina town and the illiterate, mentally-challenged man nicknamed Radio (Gooding) whom he mentors, who before that had always been the target of jokes and teasing by the community. Although their friendship raises some eyebrows at first, Radio's growth under the coach's guidance ultimately inspires the local townsfolk, from 1976 when he first starts helping the Hanna Yellow Jackets football team, through a 27+ career with the school that continues today (2003), including tenures as the head cheerleader, assistant coach and team manager.
These movie descriptions and further information can be found on the web at www.imdb.com


I took the descriptions directly from the movies database and made it clear why the movie Radio got the PG rating. Most parents these days do have some understanding and tolerance for PG movies, but you can never be too careful with the warnings.

I cannot take any credit on raising $57,000! They always have a hard-working chairman and a big committee. For example, next year's fundraiser is in April and they're already meeting this summer (which is truly earlier than usual). They usually call parents and secure people to underwrite the expenses of the party and those people's names are printed on the invitation. Then, they do a silent auction of lots and lots of things: every teacher donates something like "pizza and a movie" or "breakfast and a trip to Barnes and Noble" or stuff like that. Some of those things go for $100-$200. Plus there's other merchandise and even some trips. Sometimes a family owns a vacation home that they'll auction off a week's use. THEN, they do a live auction of children's art items. Ooops gotta run. More later
shelly

SHELLEY, I too am impressed. Please please share how you achieved so much!! Are you out there?

Shelley, I know this isn't the right forum for this but tell me, how & what kind of auction did you raise soooo much money on? My husband tells me that I can talk a donation out of a dead man but you are now my fundraising Goddess!!! talk to me.... how did you do it?

Thanks Tim. I did order some info a while back. We have had things along this line...a dinner with Book Fair and some years it's fabulously attended and other years, depending on what's going on, the attendance can be poor. I just hope that if I create one of these and it's not a booming success that it will end immediately. The thing about our school is that it's a private school so families come from all over several counties so lots of folks aren't near the school so they would have to drive in and they may not want to do that. Oh well...we'll see!! I'll run it by the principal. We do well at fundraising but that's our mindset (just raised $57,000 at an auction).
Thanks for the input.
Shelly