Michelle Smiles

Teaching my children to question authority, except mine.

Fundraisers

November25

Working in a large office has afforded me the opportunity to see the vast array of products sold by school children these days.  When I was a kid, I sold Girl Scout cookies and usually 1 school fund raiser a year.  The catalog was usually filled with an assortment of crap from over priced wrapping paper to acrylic ornaments with a baby deer ‘etched’ into it.  Things have changed though.  There seems to be a new fundraiser each grading period.  In the past couple of months, I have seen catalogs filled with pizza, hot pretzels, cookie dough in a tub, hoagies, and candies.  Come to think of it, they all seem to be food related these days.

I’m always torn about buying these items (except the GS cookies…I start stalking Girl Scouts around cookie time).  The items are usually way over priced and the quality is often questionable.  The items aren’t certainly anything that I need or even necessarily want.  I have never met these children and likely never will.  My rule used to be that I didn’t buy school fund raiser items from parents.  I would only buy them if the kids put the effort in to sell them.  But I’ve softened that stance over the years.  Many of us don’t live in neighborhoods where it is safe to send kids door-to-door alone and parents don’t always have time to take them out.  And many kids are busy with activities and don’t have time to actively sell these items.  And it’s not like the schools can’t use the money.

At home it’s a non-issue – if the kid comes to my door, I will purchase something from him or her (crap, I hope my neighbors don’t read this or I will have kids flocking to my door).  At work, my new policy is that I will buy a small item from fund raisers if I know the parent, if I can find an item that won’t go completely to waste, and if it isn’t so overpriced it makes me wince.  Guess my tolerance was high the other day.  I’m expecting a tub of cookie dough (makes 3 dozen cookies) for the bargain price of $17.00.

Do you all buy this stuff too?

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