To my knowledge, all schools do some sort of fundraising every year, with one or two particular fundraisers that typically earn the school the most money. When we lived in Royal Oak, this fundraiser was the “Husky Run”. Students were asked to get donations from family/friends and in turn, they would pledge a day of exercise and run around the school. Family/friends were encouraged to attend and cheer on the kids. It was always a big event and raised a lot of money for the school. Many of the schools nearby do similar types of runs to raise money. I remember doing this when I attended Rogers Elementary in Berkley as a kid!
I assumed that Morgan’s new school would have some sort of fundraiser and I was happy to participate when I found out that we were asked to sell raffle tickets. The drawing was scheduled to take place at the end of the school carnival in October. All of this sounded reasonable enough. So I set off to work… with my lovely social media spam!
First step was to post about Morgan’s fundraiser on Facebook. Of course I had to know what the prizes for the raffle tickets were and how much they cost before I could do that. But the information sheet that Morgan brought home didn’t have this information. The school only wanted to know how many tickets we wanted to start with. That was difficult to estimate when I didn’t know how much they cost and what the prizes were. So I took a stab in the dark and asked for 75 tickets.
The next day Morgan brought home an envelope of tickets. The prices and prizes were listed. $1 each and…. the prizes…. I was so surprised and couldn’t stop laughing… The 3rd place winner would receive $150. 2nd place would get $250. And 1st place…. “A Whole Hog – Cut & Wrapped”.
This would never be a prize in Royal Oak! With all of the diet restrictions, religious restrictions and general diversity in the city, I highly doubt this would have ever made the idea list of prizes. Needless to say, I got a lot mixed reviews when I shared this with our family and friends.
Chris was immediately excited – of course. He thought it was a great prize and expected everyone to agree with him. I thought it was really funny, but didn’t really have any interest in winning a whole hog! Pork is probably my least favorite meat and I definitely did not need or want a full pig in my freezer.
My sister Heather, who lives in California and doesn’t eat much meat, bought some tickets and told me that we could “keep the hog if she won”. I kindly told her that I couldn’t do that and we should ship it to California for her! Haha
Our friend Mike, who lives in Ferndale, bought some tickets and later joked about having to drive 2.5 hours to pickup his hog if he won. Being the kind individual that I am, I offered to request the hog uncut/unwrapped and said we could strap it to the top of Chris’s truck and drive it downstate for him. Can you imagine the looks we would get?!
Morgan ended up selling the 3rd most tickets out of the entire school! Her prize was an unlimited games bracelet and a $5 food credit. She was thrilled!
Unfortunately, Morgan didn’t end up selling any winning tickets. But she loved the carnival and was very appreciative of everyone who purchased raffle tickets. The kids had a great time playing games, winning prizes, eating junk, getting their faces painted and playing on the playground. Chris was disappointed that it wasn’t a real carnival, wasn’t outside and didn’t have any rides. Haha.
I can’t wait to see what other surprises this school year has in store for us!
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Crystal