S brought home his Jump Rope for Heart form recently, all pumped about the rewards you can get for fundraising. You know, you remember, the awesome "speed" jump rope, the super cool tee shirt, the...
Does anyone else see these and think, exploitation? I mean how hard is it to get a bunch of kindhearted first graders all excited about "saving lives"? And who's going to turn their earnest little souls down when they come knocking on your door? I did a quick search on where the money raised from jump rope for heart goes. $0.64/dollar to research, $0.32/dollar on fundraising...
Or am I just a scrooge? Or is grinch the more appropriate term?
At least there is some good in the physical activity encouragement. Though in asking S, he wasn't all that clear on where the jumping rope came into it. I remember in Jr. High, the magazine sale fundraiser with all these little fuzzy... were they called weeples? as rewards. 12 year old girls are suckers for little fuzzy things. Not much good in that one.
So, I'm faced with a decision: Try to talk him down, convince him that the jump rope isn't that cool and I don't hate people with heart problems, or go the "I don't know what happened to that sign-up sheet..." route. Or I guess I could just let him go for it? Nah, not this year. Maybe next year.
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Oh, the disappointments of life. After months of telling James that the stupid claw game at the entrance of the grocery store (the one that grabs stuffed animals) is a hoax and a rip-off, I finally let him put in his quarter and give it a shot. Sure enough, he got nothing.
After much agony of facing disappointed kids and feeling like a unsupportive and stingy mom, I finally have a plan in place. We donate a big sum to the PTA at the beginning of the year and tell them that that is what they get from us and we will not be participating in any fundraisers. We have told the kids that our way the money goes straight to the PTA and none goes to profit other companies. They were surprisingly OK with that. They tell other kids that we have donated a lot already when the little bribes such as prizes and parties are announced. Book order forms magically get lost every time after the kids make their little wishes of what junky book they want. We taught them that other fundraisers are taken care of by paying tithing and fast offerings, and we encourage the kids to be proactive at keeping track of their money and paying tithing and fast offerings.
I hope you will find what works for you and your kids.
Here's a second vote for writing a check to the school when the fundraisers come around. 100% goes to the school and the dollar store has something crappy to reward my kids if they won't let up. Win/win
Regarding "the claw," I saw a frog begging to be grabbed so I went for it. The frog got hung up in a bear so I won 2 toys. It was exciting but the stuff in those things is really junky.
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