Is it me or is the guy in blue sticking his fingers in the pink girls eye? Everybody else is having a good time though…
We’ve been spending some time over the last couple of posts looking at school fundraising ideas. A lot of our clients are schools so we want to help them out. This year the funding has been tough, so we’re throwing some extra ideas out there to help.
A great way to have fun, keep active and draw huge crowds is with a school dance fundraiser. You have a built in audience that is going to attend plus they will get hungry and thirsty as the night goes on. You can charge for a ticket to get in, plus some juice and snacks. It’s all fair since the money generated is going back into school services the students will be using anyway.
Schools can also use a dance fundraiser as an educational experience as well. Zebulon Middle School recently put on their second annual dance a thon and the students had a blast. Everyone got to participate and while gearing up for the event teachers got to show the kids different styles of music and dance.
Eighth-grader Simeon Harris helped the art teachers prepare for last year’s dance-a-thon by helping to set up the gym. Over a two-year time span, he’s learned more about different types of dances. This year, he and a fellow student have researched music and dance of the 1980s.
“There were different types (of music) then,” Harris said. “Rock, R&B, and rap,” for example.
Harris helped pick out music for this year’s event, focusing on “music everyone can enjoy.” He said the best part of getting ready for this year’s dance is “I get to pick my own selection of music.”
Vereen likes that students are learning not only how to support their school and a supporting organization, but that they are finding out about the history of American music.
School dance fundraisers are a very fun and inclusive way to raise money. It’s important like any other fundraiser to keep the kids excited about why they should take part and motivated to help sell tickets. Just ask dance teacher Letisa Vereen:
As an extra incentive, Vereen told students about the $50 gift card the arts department would give the student who brought in the most money.
Tracy Hicks, campaign assistant for the United Arts Council of Wake County, said fundraisers like the ZMS dance-a-thon, can make a significant difference. Her organization awarded art-related grants to 138 Wake County schools last year. “We reached 135,000 students,” Hicks said.
So with numbers like that they’re popular with the students, popular with teachers and with combining them with food fundraisers popular with us fundraisers.
So put your dancing shoes on and get out on that dance floor!