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Schools all over the US face questions yearly on how to support their students in many ways. Grey Cloud Elementary’s PTA work tirelessly to support their school. Their biggest effort is a fundraiser at the end of the school year.

“We do it at the end of the year, it’s weather related because we also tie it in to a track and field day,” explained Grey Cloud Principal Laura Loshek. “It’s a great community event, everybody gets something, the kids all get a t-shirt and a treat, it’s pretty inclusive. I think it’s a nice community event for us too because parents come out in droves to be spectators, they seem to enjoy it.”

The other part of doing it at the end of the year is it allows the school to budget those funds for the students use next year. It helps pay for the extra items and special events in class. The fundraiser helped pay for a communication folder for every student and busing for at least one field trip per student. It also helps pay for programs and supplies for phy-ed and the media center to add enrichment pieces. The PTA also helps fund student and staff recognition events.

There is motivation for the students to participate in the form of prize drawings. For every $50 a student raises, they earn an entry into a large prize drawing, for every $10, the are entered into a small prize drawing. The class that raises the most also gets their picture in the Cottage Grove Journal!

As a whole, $30,826 in monetary donations were raised, there was approximately $6,000 in donations for t-shirts for the kids, and local businesses donated several thousands in prizes for the students. Ms. Wood’s class won the picture event raising over $1,900 as the top class for the PTA.

The PTA does this on their own, no outside companies running the fundraiser because those companies typically 30-40 percent of the funds raised, so the PTA works very hard to maximize the money going back to the school.

Principal Loshek added, “If there are any take aways, our families and community support our collective work in many ways. School spirit is strong! Our PTA has worked tirelessly creating websites, sizing T-shirts, solicitating donations for prizes, and offering their time to have almost no additional charges. They are a small group of humble and dedicated worker! Even lunch our staff lunch and Johnny Pops were donated! This meant folks were running to pick up these items to be timely for us. The daily support from our office staff and crossing guards helped make everything function daily. Our P.E. staff and specialists organized and supported the events allday long from tug-of-war to serving as DJs. What a team!”