Thursday Connection: Fundraisers

Fundraising Opportunities

We are very excited about our Fundraising opportunities for the 2008-2009 school year. Please help us to keep our registration fees down by participating in these fundraisers. If you would like to help with any of these, please email Jennifer Tarantello, our Fundraiser Coordinator.

Play FREE Online Games, Earn Donations for Thursday Connection

Here's a fun and easy way to help raise funds for Thursday Connection by playing free online games. This is a great way to raise funds-it costs you absolutely nothing and you get to play some fun games in the process!

Start by going to: http://club.live.com/Pages/Home/HomePage.aspx.

Use your login and password for your Windows Live account (such as a hotmail email account).

If you don't already have a Windows Live account, you can quickly and easily create one at the Join or Sign In page.

Once you've signed in, you are ready to start playing the games of your choice. For each game you complete, you are awarded tickets which you can redeem for prizes OR you can donate them to Thursday Connection. If you choose to donate them to Thursday Connection, Microsoft will send us a check once a year for the total amount donated.

In order to donate your tickets to Thursday Connection, Under My Account, click on "Redeem My Tickets."

Then, on the Prizes page, choose "Give Tickets to Charity."

Next, on the Give Tickets to Charity page, choose "Redeem."

Then, on the Redemption page, Step 1 is where you will choose the number of tickets you want to donate.

Step 2 is where you select the charity or school you want to donate your tickets to. Thursday Connection is listed under the "Charity" tab. Just type in Thursday Connection as your "Search for a name or key word" and click on "Show Results." You will only have to search for Thursday Connection the first time; after that it will automatically show up in the results area.

Select Thursday Connection in the Search results area. Then click "Next Step" at the bottom of the page.

On the next page you will confirm your donation.

That's all there is to it! Log in, play some fun games, and donate your tickets. It's simple and fun! And it benefits YOUR children at Thursday Connection!

Melaleuca Fund Raiser

Thursday Connection has partnered with Melaleuca, The Wellness Company. This is a company that offers nontoxic products for us to use in our homes.

Every time a TC family uses Melaleuca products in their home, TC gets a percentage. This is a great way for your family to help TC keep registration fees down without spending any new money. These are products you use anyway.

There will be a great opportunity for you to hear about how this works on Tuesday, Sept. 9th at 7:00 pm at Mandarin House downtown west.

We will be explaining the program at 7 and then for those already using Melaleuca or those new to the program we will offer a product seminar at 8:15.

Both are free and you do not have to eat. If you do wish to eat with us, we will be there at 6:00 for dinner.

For planning purposes, please RSVP to Jodie Moore at jodie@saferforyourhome.com or 681-0425 or 247-1874. You are welcome to bring a guest.

Jodie Moore
Would you like more information on nontoxic home care products? Just ask!

Arbonne Fundraiser

Thursday Connection Fund-tastic raiser!

Do you have hair? What about skin?

Team up with Arbonne international
Pure ~ safe ~ beneficial ~ Swiss Botanicals
Products for everyone!

25% of all sales will go back to Thursday Connection!

Made in the USA ~ Vegan & vegetarian approval seal
No required enrollment, ever!

Choose the easiest option for you:
1. For the personal touch, Order in person from Manuela: 531- 1719
2. Order from my website & Have it sent to you !

Arbonne a 28-year-old company that provides superior products for all. Check out: www.gohealthy.myarbonne.com. If you order on your own, remember to put TC in the spot for your middle name!

Arbonne Fundraiser Flyer

Ice Cream Social At TCBY

Thank you very much to all the families who came to TCBY September 4th!! We all had a wonderful time and the yogurt was delicious. There were so many teenagers in the parking lot that a fire truck passing by stopped to see if there was a problem. When they realized all was well, they decided to get an ice cream!!

School Coupons

SURPRISE! It's already been one whole year since the last school coupon book sale!

What coupons have been most valuable to you?

This year our goal is so EASY! Really and truly, easy. If every student sells only 2 books, we can reach a goal of 650 books which would bring Thursday Connection a hearty total of $4,875.00.

Grandparents and neighbors can be an easy sell. The key is to sell the day you get the books (which will be Thursday, Sept. 18) or talk to them ahead of time so they will be committed to buy from you. If you don't have time that day, then sell the day after.

My girls, ages 6 and 8, sold 113 coupon books last year by mostly going door to door and received a gift certificate for Hobbytown for $100.00 plus many other small prizes. They dressed up as princesses part of the time (I suppose that's cheating because no one can turn down a princess) but it sure worked well. We had great success in neighborhoods with condos, townhouses, or homes that were close together.

I like to keep one book in my car, one in my husband’s car, and one in my purse. That way I've always got the coupon if I need it.

On Thursday, Sept. 18, I will have a table set up in the breezeway and be handing out the coupon books. I will write in how many each student takes and he/she will be responsible for returning the $10 cash for each book or if the book is not sold, then returning the book to me by Thursday, Oct. 2.

The Coupon Book folks tell me the top prizes will include iPod shuffles, Portable DVD players, possibly cash and gift certificates. You must sell at least 3 books to receive a prize. We don’t yet know what all of the prizes will be. As soon as we know, we’ll email you so you’ll know too. We encourage you to sell lots of books, so you can earn lots of prizes and help Thursday Connection at the same time. Thursday Connection earns between $6.50 and $7.00 for each book sold depending on the total number sold by our group.

Your hard work in selling these books will be very much appreciated!

Thank you very much,
Jennifer Scoggins
jmscoggins@msn.com

Silent Auction

Our Annual Fall Silent Auction will be held October 30 to November 22, 2008. We must receive all donations by October 15th. Please let us know if you have something to donate! For more information, please see our Silent Auction page.

This week several donations for the silent auction came in. Thank you to everyone who has donated something. If every family gives just one item or gift certificate we will have a great silent auction. If you need an idea of what to give, please let Jennifer know.

Dream Dinners In October

All during the month of October, visit Dream Dinners at 11124 Kingston Pike and create fantastic dinners for your whole family and help Thursday Connection at the same time! Prepare 6 meals of 6 servings each and let Dream Dinners do the prep and clean up for you. A donation of $10 will be made for each customer who mentions Thursday Connection and purchases 36 servings. A $20 donation will be made for a 72-serving purchase. You do not have to be a member of Thursday Connection in order for TC to receive the donation, so let your friends and family know about this fundraiser and be sure to tell them to mention Thursday Connection when they make their purchases at Dream Dinners.

Pancake Breakfast

We will be hosting a Pancake Breakfast sometime during the Spring Semester. The location and date are still to be determined.

Cookbook

We will be asking you for your favorite recipes and compiling them into one cookbook that we will be able to sell. More information coming soon.

Remember to Recycle!

Please throw away aluminum cans in the bins provided in the break room. This is a fundraiser for the co-op’s Student Government. Also, collect cans from home and bring them to co-op.

Last semester we made a decent amount of money from recycling. However, at the rate we are going, it looks like we won't even make half as much. Tell your students to recycle all aluminum (granola bar wrappers are not included)! But please, do not put cans still full w/ liquid or trash in bins.

With your help we can do better than last semester with this fund raiser!

Thanks for all your help and DON'T FORGET TO RECYCLE!

Kroger Incentive Program

If you shop at Kroger, please print a copy of the letter with our bar code on it and take to Kroger next time you shop. The cashier can swipe the bar code and swipe your “Plus” card to link them. Then every time you shop at Kroger, Thursday Connection will get credit. At the end of the year, Kroger will send us a check. We just received a check in August for last school year. It was for $745.22.

Let’s all make a small effort. Print this off or pick up a copy on the information table at co-op, and take it to Kroger next time you go. That’s all you have to do. Kroger does the rest.

Thanks for helping us with this.
Thursday Connection Board

Here is the link to the web site if you want to familiarize yourself with the details: http://www.krogerearningpluslearning.com/overview.html

Please note, if you were signed up last school year for the Kroger Earning Plus Learning program, you will need to sign up again. They just do it for one school year at a time. Thanks.

Food City Incentive Program

The Food City program is very similar to the Kroger one this year. Instead of collecting receipts, we just take a letter to Food City and have them scan it with our Value Card, and then every time we shop at Food City and use our Value Card, Thursday Connection benefits. They do not have an on-line letter for us to download and attach, so you’ll have to pick one up at Thursday Connection this week.

You may also go to their web site to familiarize yourself with their program: www.foodcity.com

Thanks for Supporting Thursday Connection!!

Box Tops 4 Education, Campbell's Soup, Pepperidge Farms and Swanson's Labels

Please collect and bring to co-op your Box Tops 4 Education, Campbell’s Soup, Pepperidge Farms and Swanson's Labels for Education.

Please keep in mind that the labels for education program does not accept front labels anymore. UPC bar codes need to be clipped from packages. Lids from items like V-8 can still be collected and are worth 5 points.

A list of products that have box tops and labels as well as the collection box will be on the sign in table at co-op. Be sure to get your family and friends in on the clipping and saving action, too. Thank You!

Box Tops Booster Club

You can help earn extra money for Thursday Connection by signing up and encouraging parents, family and friends to participate in the Box Tops Booster Club. Once signed up, there are exclusive opportunities to earn cash for Thursday Connection, plus money-saving coupons and get great ideas for today's busy family life. Membership is free! For a chance to win 10,000 Box Tops (equivalent to $1,000) for your school, sign up today.

Tyson's Foods A+ Labels

Thursday Connection is registered for a program offered by Tyson foods, saving symbols from their chicken products for redemption to benefit our school. Look for the A+ symbol on Tyson frozen chicken products and deli meat. Each one may be redeemed for $.24 apiece. That could really add up for Thursday Connection. For a complete list of products check out http://www.tyson.com/projectaplus/.

Used Cell Phones Needed

We can earn some funds for our new building by collecting used cell phones. There is a company that refurbishes them and uses them for domestic abuse cases and missionaries. They pay us for old phones to refurbish. Please bring us your old cell phones. We’ll have a collection box on the sign-in table. Thanks.

Why do we have fundraisers?

We’ve had a lot of questions about the fundraisers that we do. Many of you wonder why we have fundraisers. I’m so glad that you are asking!

The tuition that you pay covers the teacher’s pay and the materials fees cover all consumable supplies that your child uses in class. We actually audit the materials fees by having the teachers turn in receipts, and comparing their totals with what they are charging for materials—you’d be surprised at how much stuff costs.

There are a lot of large items that the co-op must pay for out of pocket in order to have good classes—microscopes, science equipment like scales, beakers, burners, etc. We have to purchase laptops, printers, ink, paper, and supplies for the childcare room. We try to purchase at least one large item from the fall fundraisers, and this year, we will be purchasing a projector that will connect to a laptop to allow the teachers to use the internet in the classroom. This will primarily be used by Mrs. Migas in art each week, but there will be other teachers who will use it as well. In addition to these purchases, we pay rent on the facilities to cover some of the expenses such as wear and tear on the building, utilities, supplies such as cleaners, toilet paper, and paper towels. While the church gives us a good deal as far as rent goes, we still pay several thousand a year.

Last Spring, the board voted to put Mary and Wendy on “payroll.” The two of us, on a good week with no big things going on (like registration, crisis, etc), have documented at least 20 hours per week on a consistent basis (even during the summer.) During registration periods, tax times, periods when there might be a crisis going on, it is not unusual for us to put in many more hours than that. Our “pay” is very conservative, but does help cover classes for our children. If we didn’t have fundraisers, either we would have to raise fees (yes, we know they are already a stretch for most of us,) or go bankrupt. I hope this explanation helps you to understand why we try so hard to get folks involved in fundraisers. If each family would embrace at least one fundraiser a year, this would be so much easier for us.

We also have a vision for Thursday Connection to eventually have our own building. This is a dream, but a possible one. It will actually be a building for the entire home school community to use. We have several ways we’re looking into making this happen. Please pray for God’s leadership in this endeavor.

The funds brought in by folks “buying” their shifts are used to hire consistent workers in the childcare and break rooms, so that we have folks in there who can get to know the kids. We feel this provides a safer environment. We also use this money to hire folks to fill in the holes left after everyone signs up.

General Operating Fund

Dear Thursday Connection Families,

As we mentioned in registration communication, our budget is extremely tight for the upcoming year. We are attempting to maintain our registration fees at the same level they’ve been at for the past 5 years while paying increased operating expenses. We are looking for ways to tighten our belt.

Our new family registration is down by about 50% over previous years. Our returning families registration is about the same. Due to the registration numbers at this time, we can expect to face a deficit in our budget for next year. We do have a new fundraising chairman for whom we are very thankful, however, please remember we need everyone’s support in our fundraising efforts. Some of you told us in the surveys that you would rather give a donation than help raise funds. This email is for you.

At this point, our registration fee intake will be about 3000 dollars less than in previous years (a difference of about 40 families at 35/ semester). This could change some as we take registrations over the summer, however, the bulk of registration is complete. Our rent will go up next year due to the documented extra utility expenses for the church since we moved there. All other expenses are expected to stay the same. If you would like to make a donation to the general operating fund, please make checks payable to Thursday Connection. All donations are tax deductible.

Thank you for considering this request.

Mary, for the Thursday Connection Board

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Fundraisers