I need ideas and maybe you do too

I am trying to become more involved with my town and school district. I come from a town that is more on the poor side, the town does not have an involved community, and the schools are so poorly focused on, that the elementary school doesn’t even have AC, we have 3 vacant schools that just sit and rot. One of the 3 schools was a large beautiful elementary school that had AC and a beach, and a play ground and was used for kids to go to for summer school. Now, the kids don’t have a school with AC to use for summer school so they…just don’t do summer school now.

I do receive emails from the school district and town letting me know about meetings and budgets but I am not good with numbers and most of what I read doesn’t make sense. However I did notice in the most recent email, they said they were reducing the teachers salary and school needs to fit the town budget properly. The school desperately seeks any way to make any type of money and parents just aren’t involved. Mainly because everyone’s so broke they can’t afford to donate anything. But the schools also make the fundraisers so expensive because they’re working with outside company’s. For example a chocolate company did a fundraiser at our school, and chocolates went as high as 30$! No wonder the school doesn’t make money right?

So here are some ideas I have that I would like to share for other people who might want to help their community:

- Box tops. I remember when I was younger my grandmother would cut all the box tops and send them to our school, now with modern day technology you don’t have to cut them any more, you download the box top app, choose the school you want the money donated to, and scan your receipt and the money you eat goes straight to your school. Tell your school, print flyers and send them to your local schools so that they may send them home with the students and all parents may be aware and become involved.

- Can tabs. As I mentioned, the VFW my grandmother worked at collected can tabs and sent them somewhere they recycle the tabs into wheel chairs for vets (I dont know the company, I’ll look into it and comment if I find out, otherwise just send them to your local VFW). Send flyers to your local bars, restaurants and tell them to send/donate the tabs to the local VFW.

- Clothes. Post on Facebook, flyers, library’s, town board, tell your community to drop off children’s clothes (clean them) and post about it. Tell your community that if a family is in need of children’s clothes, to contact you about how many kids, their age and gender and size and set up a box of clothes for them to pick up.

- school field trips. My son has been in his school for 3 years and this year is the first time they’ve offered a field trip. They never have enough donations to afford trips for kids. I think if we send home notifications to parents, stating “hey, this is the field trip idea we have, this is how much it’ll cost, please donate to help us reach the goal” and at the end of the week notify the parents about how much they have and how much left they need. I think it will motivate parents to donate because 1) they want their children to have a fun field trip experience 2) they know where the money is going and if they see they aren’t close to their goal, it’ll possibly motivate them to continue donating.

- donations to teachers. Teachers are underpaid (and frankly under appreciated) and pay for their class room supplies out of their own pocket. Every year, when me and my children go to their school orientation to meet their teacher, the teachers will have an Amazon wishlist code for parents to (optionally) buy things from their wishlist. Which I think is a huge help! But not all parents buy it, and some teachers don’t get donations at all. I think that all teachers should be doing this, but I also think the school should have one all year round so that any donations given can be dispersed to all teachers.

-Teen center. My town used to have one, and it was awesome! But slowly over time it shut down due to no kids. I think had they added activities, it would influence kids to go and hang out and create a safe space. Dart boards, pool tables, tvs, game console, music area, art area, a reading area, snack center, maybe even a work out center. Make it a 5$ entry fee so that money can be made to contribute to snacks. Have families donate games, old consoles.

-DIY. During the pandemic, everyone came together and made face masks. During the pandemic, people had no choice but to come up with a hobby which most chose DIY projects. If you look online, their are videos to show you how to make your own paper out of recycled paper, cardboard and cardboard egg cartons. It’s so easy! Don’t want to or can’t buy paper for your schools? Make some! It gives them paper and influencing recycling!

What are some ideas you have? What does your town do to help? What can we do for our town and schools?