Hi Everybody, I have never written any letter requesting anything from parents, so I am very hesitant (embarrassed/fearful) to write them one. However, my class need to raise some money to cover the bus costs for our field trip. I am thinking of of asking parents to donate aluminum cans to our class so that we can turn them into cash. How would you start such a letter of request. Please help me out. Any ideas/format you can suggest will be appreciated.
One time on the field trip form we simply said, "the cost is $3.50 but we are asking for a 50 cent donation to help cover the traveling cost." It was worded a little differently but most parents donated 50 cents. After that our principal wouldn't let us include it on the form. So if you do ask for donations make sure that you run it through your principal first! Our art teacher sent home a note to all 500 students this year and go it BIG trouble for asking for money donations. Maybe you can have an art show of the student's work and have parents come in and bid on the art work. Tell them that the raised money will go to covering their field trip cost. My niece's school did something similar to this. I guess there was a huge turn out. I do like your idea of donating cans. That way no one is really out any money. How long do you have to collect the cans? "It is about time for our field trip to the _________________! We have starting planning all of the fun activitites such as ____. This should be a fun and educational experience. As a part of the educational experience our class will be learning about money and the value of saving. To help cover the costs of the field trip we are asking the students and families to bring in clean and empty aluminum cans. We will collect the cans and cash them in to help pay for the transportation to our field trip." That could be a start to a letter. Whatever you do I would include in your weekly newsletter how much you have collected so far and how close you are to your goal. You might get the PTO or a parent to donate the remainder of the money.
I tried collecting cans one year to raise money to buy a birdfeeder(it was a school project). I vowed NEVER to collect cans again. First of all, I collected cans for almost the entire school year and raised about $14.00. The cans were sent in sticky, stinky (alot of people sent in beer cans) and if I didn't take them to the aluminum place quickly, they got roachy. It was ALOT of work for a small payback. Just a heads up-I'd try something different. We send a wish list home at the beginning of the year and on it we ask for gift cards from food stores, or Walmart to buy things. We try to book only free field trips, but had a $5.00 one this year. We asked that anyone who wished to please send in extra money and we still ended up in the hole. Luckily our PTA picked up the difference.
Thank you both very much FirstGradeTeach and Kindergarten31. I love reading your suggestions and experiences. I have no ideas about the headaches involving aluminum cans and a low return for all the hardwork.
