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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]We earned more than $20K from Boosterthon after we had already done an amazing silent auction that raised $22K! And our school is 28% Farms! Do you know who was giving $20 flat donations or 50 cents a lap for their kid?! The FARMS families!!! Everyone wants to be part of raising money for the school and part of supporting and sponsoring their child in doing something fun! You guys can knock it all you want, but Boosterthon blew us away with what they provided to our school. The morale is high and the classroom "team spirit" during that two weeks and beyond was off the charts! And that is priceless![/quote]

Wow, I don't think I've read something so tone deaf and self absorbed in a long time. Do you realize that families on FARMS are food insecure, have difficulty getting together rent each month, struggle to buy their kids new shoes or winter coats and spending $20 on Boosterthon doesn't mean just giving up 4 Starbucks drinks? Do you understand the humiliation of poverty that poor kids and their families experience around people like you?

Of course the poor kids don't want to be excluded! Everyday when these kids walk into school they see how your kids have so much more. They see your kids in a house with their own bedroom while they are in a tiny apartment sharing a room with multiple siblings or even their parents. They see your kids new shoes, soccer ball and new school supplies. The parents giving you your $20 that would have paid for food for the next week aren't doing it because they love the priceless experience that you brought to the school -they are doing it so that at least for this their kid isn't on the sideline. They are doing it because they want to avoid the humiliation that you'll think they don't do their part. For once, they don't want their kids to feel less than the others. Boosterthon knows this and plays off this feeling. Its just morally wrong on so many levels.

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Tone deaf is exactly what THIS reply is, actually. I grew up in one of these families and the idea that you would think that families like ours don't take pride in contributing even the little amount that we can is insulting and dehumanizing. Yes we were food poor often didn't know how we would get groceries for the next week, but we also wanted to feel like part of the school community and took pride in giving too. 
I know you think you're being kind and posting in defense of families like mine, but maybe speak for yourself.[/quote]

Not the PP, but agree with them. Of course, all kids should be able to participate in activities, and the pressure to give money in order to do so fully is what is offensive.  Families shouldn't be put into the position that they HAVE to for their kid to fit in socially.  Sure-- FARMS families may be happy to give and there are plenty of opportunities for them to do so.  But it's the social pressure of Boosterthon that I don't like.

My school had it a few years ago.  Our income is high enough that it's not a problem, but I really hated the pressure.  We discontinued it because so many parents hated it.  (Though I'll admit that the $$ was good-- it helped our PTA budget for a few years after we stopped!)[/quote]

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