Boosterthon, blech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you hate Boosterthon so much then go ahead and organize your own fun run for the school. Get some volunteers to assist with it. Raise $40,000 and your school gets to keep it all! Heck, even just raise $20k which would be about your schools take if you went with Boosterthon.

Look, it is very hard for schools to get volunteers to pull off a run like that and raise that type of cash. By hiring Boosterthon, the PTA is essentially hiring a company to do the dirty work of the fundraiser. Dirty work that majority of parents would not do.

No -- by hiring Boosterthon, the PTA is essentially hiring a company to get the kids to do the dirty work of the fundraiser for free.

I don't care about the 48%. But don't spend my kids' in-school time trying to turn my kids into Boosterthon's fundraisers.

ACTUALLY, Boosterthon still needs teachers for volunteers - they take 48% of the cut, charge a 2k booking fee - you are obviously just a Boosterthon employee trying to downplay the situation.

[Anonymous]

My kids are in middle school, but the elementary school they went to is doing something like this for the first time this year. It's not called Boosterthon, but it is similarly wrapped in "positivity" and "leadership" babble. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Public schools: if it’s free, your child is the product!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids came home today with stickers on their shirts to support the Boosterthon. The school had signs of different sizes stuck in the ground along the KnR route. A teacher e-mailed a message to the parents reminding us to register our kids tongiht so they can start getting prizes tomorrow. Each child had a packet from the Boosterthon that included this page:

"How to Get a Pledge

Student Script
'Hello, may I speak to [sponsor]? Hello, [sponsor], this is [your name] I am calling to tell you about a cool, new program at our school called the Boosterthon Fun Run. In a few days, I will be running laps around the Boosterthon Speedway. Iw ill be running between 30-35 laps ... 35 is the most I can run.

[Sponsor], I have a question for you ... Will you please pledge me a dollar amount for every lap I run? You can pledge 1 dollar, 2 dollars per lap or any other amount. I will call you next week to tell you how many laps I ran.

Thank you for helping me reach my goal!"

The brochure also had "Pledge Secrets" like these

-- Make a family viseo asking for a pledge. Share it on Facebook.
-- Group text 5 work friends asking for a pledge.
As a family, Facetime or Skype with relatives.

I understand schools are looking for donations that are used on the student body, but this feels so slimy. I remember fundraising like this when I was a student, but this feels so orchestrated and gross. I noticed music posters in the hallway the other day and now I see in the brochure that they were Boosterthon posters that involve another component to drive home the message: Boosterthon! Woo-hoo! Raise money!!

I've heard these folks get 45%? of the proceeds. There are junky trinkets being used as incentives. There was a pep rally for the whole school.

I'm not judging anyone who participates, I just hate the idea of this enterprise.

I absolutely hate these “prices”. They are hand out in front of other students, so basically the more you donate, the more stuff your kid gets in front of all classmates, so they can be sad and cry then to their parents for money 🙄🙄maybe stop f-not wasting money on free food and actually pay for the things schools need

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had Fun Runs when I was in school, years ago, and the school ran it themselves. I think it's disgusting that kids are essentially raising money for a for-profit corporation. I also think it's gross that kids are being asked to raise money for their own public school--it's not like raising money for an extracurricular activity. Honestly, I'd rather just write a check and not have the kids involved in this crap.

i agree with this. when i was a kid i sold cookie for girl scouts and candy for sports. nothing for the school.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, Boosterthon gave me the same icky feelings it gave the parents of my students. Worse still, the Boosterthon staff were in my classroom 1-2x/day to “encourage” the kids and give them prizes. I’d have to give up instruction for the 10 minutes they were there with the kids, and I never knew the exact timing. After the Boosterthon staff left the room, I’d be stuck trying to refocus kids who had spent 1/5 of class time getting hyped up with loud music, cheering, and prizes.

It was new administrators who invited Boosterthon to campus where I worked, not the PTA. In my opinion, it made the brand new head and assistant head look ridiculous without increasing total donations to the school that year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public schools: if it’s free, your child is the product!

And you're paying how much to private school for essentially the same education that my kid is getting for free? Joke's on you, sucka!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public schools: if it’s free, your child is the product!

And you're paying how much to private school for essentially the same education that my kid is getting for free? Joke's on you, sucka!

Only a frog in the well would say something like that! I’ll not disillusion you though.

[Anonymous]

We just had our boosterthon. With the most ridiculous slogan Change the World. Seriously? It's laughable. They take 40% of what is raised and we raised a ton. The reason why schools do this type of fundraising is because it's easy. Kids are like whoa I want a prize or I want PJ day for my class. They hound their parents. Kids see the prizes other kids get in class they hound their parents. Parents, grandparents, family friends give. Boom tons of money even after the company takes their cut. We used to ask at the beginning of the year for parents to donate $75 per kid most parents didn't give anything. But with boosterthon we are averaging about $64 a kid and that's even though not everyone participates. People say they hate boosterthon and rather write a check but that's not the reality.

[Anonymous]

This thread is so depressing. Makes me a little bit glad that we are in a title one school and I don't think my principal would ever go in for this

[Anonymous]

Our school is doing Boosterthon for the first time and I have a question for seasoned parents:

Is it better if I write a check directly to the school so they don't have to give Boosterthon the 40% cut, or does that someone make the school look like they raised less money? I assume the direct check is preferable but is there something I'm not thinking of?