posted on February 13, 2002 07:32:50 AM new
This post is to raise awareness of the Box Tops for Education program. The General Mills Box Tops for Education are each worth 10 cents and are found on such General Mills products as: Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Total, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Roll-ups, Fruit Gushers, Dunkaroos, Yoplait yogurt multipacks, Potato Buds, Suddenly Salad, Bisquick, Yoplait Go-Gurt yogurt, Bac-os, Supermoist cake mix, Betty Crocker frosting, Betty Crocker supreme brownies, Betty Crocker supreme dessert bars, Betty Crocker potato side dishes, Lloyd`s barbeque buckets, Hamburger Helper, Chicken
Helper, and Tuna Helper.
My son's elementary school is saving these Box Tops. Last year`s efforts generated over $900 for the school; the goal
for the 2001-2002 school year is $1100.
General Mills is offering a new incentive program called the Box Tops for Education Honor Roll. The Honor Roll recognizes schools that have met a stretch goal set by General Mills based on last year's participation in the program. To reach the goal General Mills has set for my son's elementary school, the school needs to collect 600 more box tops (to date for this year we have collected over 6000!) between now and March 30th. The reward for reaching the goal will be 800 additional box tops ($80). The school will also be recognized for its efforts on the Box Tops for Education website http://www.boxtops4education.com. Isn't that neat?
So far my cyber friends who have so graciously agreed to help me with this project have collected over 1100 box tops for me! On behalf of my son's school, THANK YOU!!!
I'm on a mission to try to recruit as many new cyber friends as I can to help collect box tops for me to help the school reach its stretch goal and be on the General Mills Honor Roll!
If anyone is interested in saving these for me, please send me an email at [email protected].
If folks would rather collect box tops for their own community, that is great! I am sure the schools would greatly appreciate the support. The idea is to get folks
within communities to participate. Just be sure to check with office staff first to be sure your school participates in the program.
posted on February 13, 2002 03:43:08 PM new
I would be interested to hear more about other fund raising activities that fellow parents are involved in for their children's school - I`m always on the look out for new ideas for raising money to bring up for discussion at PTO meetings.
One program I started at my son`s preschool was a plastic grocery bag recycling program - families collect clean plastic grocery bags from participating stores, send them to a company called Enviro-Bag, who recycles the bags into garbage bags which are then stocked on the shelves of the participating stores. The schools can earn up to $1.00 per pound of clean plastic bags. I am in the process of starting this program my son`s elementary school. If you think your school PTO might be interested in this, check out website www.enviro-bag.com. It`s a great way to teach the kids about recycling and earning money for the school at the same time.
Another great fund raiser is the Scrip program, whereby you pre-buy gift certificates and participating merchants donate a percentage of the face value of the gift certificate to the school. If you are not familiar with this program, please check out website http://www.glscrip.com. The beauty of this fund raiser is that it does not cost the parents any additional monies - you use your existing shopping habits, and with a little pre-planning, can earn money for your school without spending extra dollars.
posted on February 13, 2002 05:27:33 PM new
I've gotten a tremendous response from posts like this - there are 40+ people across the country saving box tops for my son's school, and at least as many saving them for their local community school systems.
So, yes, you will continue to see my posts advertising this wonderful program. This site is a great place to inform folks of the opportunity to help their schools earn much needed $$$ and to solicit ideas on other fund raising efforts other schools have successfully implemented.
I'll even give you a heads-up and say that this post, or ones like it, will be here for years to come, as I intend to continue to pursue using the Internet and its vast resources for helping raise awareness for school fund raising activities!
posted on February 13, 2002 06:24:04 PM new
Helen, you stated in another thread:
"But isn't it unfortunate that our government failed these children? When they can spend billions of dollars every week on war, these children in special education programs should not be left behind.
We should be ashamed."
I agree that the children in special education programs should not be left behind. Children, all children, are our future - their hopes, dreams, aspirations - and we as adults need to do everything within our power to help them succeed.
The funds generated by my son's school PTO group support a variety of activites, from sponsoring class field trips, hosting visits from well-known children's book authors, to providing "mini-grants" to all the elementary teachers so the teachers can purchase class room materials they might otherwise have to do without or spend their own money to buy.
It is my understanding from attending the various PTO meetings and reviewing past PTO budgets that there are a number of events/activities like those mentioned above that occur every year which are funded either substantially or entirely from monies generated from PTO fund raisers. There are other events/activities that happen either every-so-many-years or are a unique opportunity to enrich the children's education - many of these are also sponsored with PTO fund raising monies.
I would love to see my son's school PTO sponsor a speaker such as Gavin de Becker talk to parents/teachers/staff/students about safety within the school system, but I am sure that would cost big, big bucks! Keeping our children safe in school, whether it is preschool/elementary/high school/college, is another one of my "hot topics", so for now I am on a mission to educate myself on various philosophies (most notibly de Becker and his vast array of associates....) on predicting and preventing violent behavior, then passing that info onto appropriate school personnel. But that as they say, is another topic.......
posted on February 13, 2002 07:17:35 PM new
Irene, thanks for the reminder about the Campbell's program! My son's school PTO did participate in that fund raiser a number of years ago but decided to drop it in lieu of other fund raising activities.
Through a post similar to this one on another forum, I met a fellow Mom who is vice president of her daughter's PTO - their school is saving soup labels, so I've started saving them for her. I have even recruited a number of parents in my son's kindergarten class (including the kindergarten teacher herself!) into saving soup labels for me for my friend.
One thing I would like to see in my local school system is a single source of information on the various schools PTO fund raising activities. Each school has their own PTO function and their own set of fund raisers that they do every year, but there is no single place I as a parent can go to find out which school does what fund raisers. The community does have a website that discusses each of the local elementary/middle/high schools in detail; however topics such as PTO groups or their fund raising efforts are not discussed. I contacted the coordinator of the website to suggest PTO/fundraising information be included in the website, but was told that type of information would have to be supplied and maintained by each individual school. Given school budget and staffing cuts of late, I am not sure the school has personnel available to do this type of website maintenance. Personally, I think the website would be a great place to detail this type of information - it could be particularly valuable information for prospective families moving into the area who are scoping out the school system online.
The school system does publish a newsletter that is distributed throughout the community that informs the public on various school-related issues/topics - the next time it is published I'm going to have to find out who to contact to suggest they include an article about the various PTO organizations and their fund raisers.
O.K. fellow PTO members/parents, is the above situation unique to my local community school system or does your school district have a similar problem of little/no known cross-communication between PTO groups in the schools within the district?
posted on February 13, 2002 08:07:31 PM new
I don't remember who said it, and I'm paraphrasing here, but the phrase was something like "either do nothing and be part of the problem or do something and be part of the solution".
Glad to see you are part of the latter group rather than the former! Doesn't it just tick you off when you get a standard form letter that doesn't even address the issues/concerns you wrote about? I hate that!
I agree that it will hopefully be a different story when it comes time to vote....it'll be kind of hard to ignore folks when they've spoken (or should I say voted) what's on their mind and in their hearts.
posted on February 13, 2002 08:16:59 PM new
Thanks, Sally
As you can probably understand, this total neglect of our children makes me so angry. And you are right about the form letters. Our concerns are just trashed.
posted on February 17, 2002 02:22:37 PM new
Yippy Skippy - another 130 box tops arrived in yesterday's mail! Thanks to all my cyber-friends who are saving box tops for me! You are doing one fantastic job in helping my son's school reach this year's goal! With your help we are sure to make it on the General Mills Box Tops for Education Honor Roll!
posted on February 24, 2002 09:50:46 AM new
Thank you, cyber friends for helping to collect 1393 box tops so far for my son's school! I haven't spoken with the gal coordinating the box tops program at my son's school, but I am guestimating that the school is about 300 box tops away from being on the General Mills Honor Roll, and we couldn't have done it without all your help and support. THANK YOU!
posted on March 4, 2002 12:25:09 PM new
The total is now up to 1486 box tops that my cyber friends have so graciously collectd so far for my son's school! THANK YOU! Hopefully the box top coordinator will have a new school-wide total soon - I can't wait to see if the school made the General Mills Honor Roll.
posted on March 20, 2002 10:45:09 AM new
The total is now up to 1682 box tops that my cyber friends have so graciously collectd so far for my son's school! THANK YOU!
More arrived in the mail today, but I haven't had a chance to count them and add them to the total. Hopefully the box top coordinator will have a new school-wide total soon - I can't wait to see if the school made the General Mills Honor Roll.
posted on March 24, 2002 07:02:35 AM new
Hey cyber friends, so far you have helped collect over 1680 box tops for my son's school - that's $168 worth of box tops! THANK YOU!
Keep those box tops coming in the mail! I truly appreciate the continued support!
