Every year, all schools rely on fundraising to enrich their educational needs. This year, more than any other in recent memory, finances have been tighter for all families and by extension for all schools as well. While we all agree that our schools need more funding, the big question that always remains is where the money is to come from. Wouldn’t it be nice if money were available just because we need it or deserve it? Believe it or not, there are ways to help give money to Reed Middle School that won’t cost YOU anything extra! With only a tiny bit of effort, we can take advantage of several opportunities to benefit our school!
Recycling
As many of you already know, WRMS has a recycling program for plastic bottles and cans. The State of California charges a deposit every time a plastic bottle or aluminum can is purchased. When that item is recycled, the money is returned. Last year almost 22 billion aluminum, glass, and plastic containers were purchased and just less than 15 billion of those were recycled. That means there are a potential 7 billion cans and bottles that could be earning Reed money! Okay, but let’s get realistic. While we don’t want our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders consuming 7 billion cans of soda, one thing that we can do as a school is to make sure that ALL of our plastic bottles and aluminum cans are brought to the school recycling bins. All of the recycling that we collect brings money to our school and all of it goes directly to the Wolf Store to purchase rewards and prizes for the kids to redeem when they demonstrate good behavior. You can even bring your recycling from home to school. There is a large green recycling bin outside of room 153 and there are bins in the main hallway just past the attendance office and outside of the library. And, when you attend events in the auditorium, please remember to use the bins in the foyer. This is a GREAT way to give money to the school without it costing you a single penny!
Did you know that Reed also collects computer printer ink cartridges? This is another way to help the environment by disposing of something properly and at the same time, earn money for the school that the teachers can use for supplies. Look for the collection box in the Main Office—it’s located between the teacher mailboxes.
Ventura Blvd. Receipt Program
The Studio City Improvement Association donates 10% back to local schools on purchases made at businesses on Ventura Boulevard and Ventura Place (between Carpenter Avenue and Whitsett) each calendar year. Businesses participating include Vons, Trader Joes, Big 5, Panera Bread, Baskin-Robbins, Yellow Balloon, Daily Grill and many, many more. Bring any receipts you have from anytime in 2009 to the Main office and put them in the specially marked box (located on the counter just inside the door). Or, look for the box at all the PTSA General Meetings and in the Auditorium foyer at all the Music Department concerts. WRMS has the potential to earn up to $8,300 but will need to collect $83,000 worth of receipts. This is a great way for Reed to benefit from money you may have already spent or were going to spend anyway!
Box Tops 4 Education
Box Tops 4 Education is a program from General Mills. Many of their products have a small coupon on the box that can be clipped out. Each coupon is worth 10 cents to participating schools. Some of the brands with products that qualify are Progresso, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Ziploc, Juicy Juice, Yoplait, and many others. A full list can be found on the website, www.boxtops4education.com. Look for the collection box in the school’s Main Office between the teacher mailboxes (right next to the ink cartridge recycling box). So, look through your cupboards, clip off any “Box Top 4 Education” coupons and turn them in. You can help the school and you might even find that can of soup you forgot was there!
Office Depot
Office Depot will donate 5% of purchases made back to designated schools. Purchases can be made at any Office Depot location. When you get to the cash register, give them Reed’s ID number, 70011231 (or if you forget, just ask the cashier to look it up), and ask for Reed to be given credit for your purchase. The 5% credit will go directly to the teachers to buy supplies for the classroom. This should also work on any online purchases made at www.officedepot.com. Also, if you have any receipts for that you’ve already made but didn’t get credit for, you can turn them into the Ventura Blvd. Receipt Program box in the main office and we will attempt to get credit for them as well. The next time you need that new notebook/pen/calendar or whatever, you can give back to Reed at the same time!
Escrip and Schoolpop/OneCause
eScrip streamlines the whole fundraising process and puts everyone -- the organization, the kids, their parents, and the community -- in the winner's circle.
eScrip is proven to be a fantastic resource for fundraising where participating business partners contribute a percentage of your grocery loyalty cards, credit card, and debit/ATM card purchases to the school, group or organization of your choice.
Here's How it Works:
1.You register any one or all of your existing grocery loyalty, debit and credit cards for use in the program.
2.Participating merchants will make contributions to your chosen group, based on purchases made by you, just by using the cards you have registered.
3.Your purchases are tracked and available to you online, allowing you to see just how much you are earning on your child's behalf!
Click on the logo below to get access to the eScrip shopping mall. All of your purchases will benefit our school.
Schoolpop/OneCause is an internet shopping site that allows you to make contributions to the school while shopping at online at businesses such as Land’s End, Nordstrom’s, Avon’s, Dell, and many others. When you log on, you can choose Walter Reed PTSA as your cause. Then when you do your online shopping via www.onecause.com, you can choose the online stores you want to use and Reed will get credit.
Both of these services are great tools for giving money to the school while making purchases that you would be making anyway. What a great way to make your dollar really do extra work! While neither of these programs is currently available for Reed families right now, we hope to have them up and running in January, 2009. Please keep your eyes and ears open for more details to come!
While each one of these things might bring in only a few cents each, it is important to remember that we are a school of almost 1600 students. If EVERY student turned in either just one bottle or box top, we could earn almost $100 and if we all did just that ONE thing EVERY WEEK, that would be almost $3000 every year. Just think what we could do with just 2 cans a week…or 3. It all adds up.
How much is your school and education worth to you? A few extra minutes a week may be all it takes to really make a difference!
