Does anybody like school fundraisers, really?  I know lots of people who organize them, participate in them, and benefit from them.  It’s not all bad.

As a child I hated fundraisers.  Begging folks to buy things they don’t need so my school/group could get a small piece of the pie wasn’t fun.  And, if it was candy one was always at risk of having it stolen by other kids who either wanted to eat it or just wanted to see your reaction.  I vowed never to sell anything.

Then I ended up in retail in college, which wasn’t bad as there was no merchandise hawking (or commissions).  Most oddly, though, I then ended up in corporate sales though, as you can imagine, that was nothing like what I imagined in high school.

Coming full circle now I have the kids’ fundraisers to deal with.  Earlier in the month we had the shop local fundraiser.  This week it’s Scholastic Book Club.  I have no vested interest in them, but think I’m ok with books.  Especially since I have so many younger ones who will eventually reach this level of reading, it doesn’t hurt to grow our library.

I’ve been hit with this for years now, starting in preschool and now preschool and public school.  I’ve concluded that my preference is to write a check to the PTA in the fall and then I’m done.  Should something come along we can actually use I may do that too, but its pretty rare.  I’d far prefer 100% of my contribution goes to the school than covering overhead/prizes or stuff that I don’t need.