Having just completed our Mother’s Day Stall at the school that our children go to for 2017, we can finally relax and pat ourselves on the back for another great Mother’s Day Stall. The kids are happy, the school is happy and hopefully the mothers will be happy when they wake up on Mother’s Day morning.
For most schools the Mothers/Father’s Day stalls are a way to raise funds in a way that makes it fun for the children. Seeing the excitement in the children’s eyes when they get to pick a present to give mum or dad is priceless. We know that our children were talking about it for days before wondering what gift to give mum.
Organising the Mother’s/Father’s Day Stall can be a challenge. There are so many things that need to be thought of to make it successful. We have come up with some hints on how to make your Mother’s/Father’s Day Stall a success.
- Plan ahead. At the beginning of the year work out when Mother’s Day happens. At the beginning of Term 3 work out when Father’s Day happens. Find out if anything is happening the week before Mother’s/Father’s Day that may impact the date that you chose for the Stall. This year the week before Mother’s Day also coincided with NAPLAN testing that was happening across all schools. As a result we changed the Stall date to be the week before. It is up to you as to how you work around these. Once you have chosen a date, talk to the school so they know that you have picked a date.
- Purchase the gifts and wrapping. This is very important to do as soon as possible. It can even be done the year before. The sooner you purchase the gifts, the more gifts you have to choose from. The closer to the date of Mother’s/Father’s Day you leave it, the less gifts you have to choose from. Usually you will be left with things that no one else wanted.
- Decide how you will have the children pay for the gifts. Some schools have all the gifts be a certain price that is paid for beforehand. This makes it easier as you aren’t dealing with money on the day. The money is collected beforehand. Other schools have different price points for the gifts and the gifts are paid for on the day. The children bring in the money and they decide what gift to buy depending on how much money they have. Both ways work. The only thing to be mindful of is when the money is brought on the day, extra care needs to be taken around the money, which means extra volunteers will be needed.
- Send out the letter to the children advising the parents of the date and how the children will be able to pay for the gifts. If you have chosen to prepay the presents then an order form is also attached to the note, where parents can fill out how many gifts are being brought by the child. It is also a good idea to have a space for parents to write out siblings and classes that are going to the school, so that the children don’t double up on gifts on the day. If the gifts are bought on the day, the note needs to advise parents what the different price points for the gifts will be, so that the children have enough money on the day for the gifts. This is also a great time to ask volunteers to help out on the day.
- Some schools also run a raffle for Mother’s/Father’s Day. Parents are asked to donate things to the school that can be made into hamper’s that are raffled off. Raffle tickets would be stapled to the note that goes home to parents. Once you start to get things donated, then you can start to make the hampers, or we can make hampers for you at a low cost.
- The week before the stall you can start organising gifts into classes. This makes it easier on the day to just take the box for the class that you need. You don’t need to be specific about what is for each class. About 4 or 5 of each gift that you have is enough.
- The day before if you can ask the school for a list of how each class will be coming out, would be great. That way you have the right box for each class as they come. Some schools will give you the list on the morning of.
- On the day, set up the tables of where the stall will be and set up the gifts. If the children are buying the gifts on the day, then you may want to set up a table for each price point so the children know how much everything is and where they need to go. A table could also be set up to be the cash register, where the children pay for the gifts. You will also need to set up a table where the students need to go if they have siblings at the school. That way it can be written down what each child gets in the family and there is no double up of gifts.
- After the last class as gone, it is clean up time.
Running a Mother’s/Father’s Day stall may seem like a big task, but if you consider the hints above you will have no issues.
If you are still unsure about what to do, then give us a call. We can organise and run the whole thing for you. Taking the stress out of fundraising for your school.
Only available in Sydney metro area and there are limited spots available.