{"id":844,"date":"2017-01-03T16:57:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T16:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=844"},"modified":"2017-01-03T16:59:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T16:59:08","slug":"ftv-the-art-of-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=844","title":{"rendered":"FTV: The Art of Fundraising"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I managed to make it through a whole year of teaching before the field trip bug hit me. \u00a0I had fond memories of visiting Marquette hotspots like the Burt Pioneer cabin and the Bunny Bread factory in elementary school, so I guess it was inevitable that I would end up looking into taking my students somewhere. \u00a0This was no small undertaking because in the fall of 1976, my seventh grade class numbered some 125 students spread across five class periods. \u00a0In field trip terms, this equated to two very full bus loads of bodies that would need to be transported.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My first stop was to see then elementary principal Jim Ollila. \u00a0He listened to my proposal and tried to let me down as gently as he could without crushing my hopes and dreams of taking a field trip: \u00a0\u201cThat sounds good, but there isn\u2019t any money set aside for field trips. \u00a0You will have to raise the funds to take a trip.\u201d \u00a0A shudder ran down my spine and I heard the voice of Dr. McCoy paraphrasing the line used in many classic <\/span>Star Trek <\/span><\/i>episodes: \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a teacher, Jim, not a salesman!\u201d \u00a0A sudden wave of nausea swept over me because in all of my public school years, I had to sell stuff exactly once, and even that one time, although necessary, was not in my comfort zone. \u00a0This was my first lesson in the school of, \u201cIf you want to do it, find the money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My hat is off to people who make a living in sales because it is something that I could not do. \u00a0The door-to-door Fuller Brush guys were still in operation in my elementary school days and they never gave me a bad impression of the calling. \u00a0They were always neat as a pin and had the level of charm and charisma needed to knock on the door and sell my mother those essentials of modern homemaking. \u00a0To hear them wax on melodiously about the wonders of Glamorene Rug cleaning powder was up there with James Earl Jones interpreting Darth Vader\u2019s voice (\u201cLuke, it will clean nasty spots from your carpet . . \u201c). \u00a0I even found the bartering aspect of watching my father buy a car interesting as long as I could wander off and look at the new models when I got bored (usually in five minutes or less). \u00a0Even today I can\u2019t find it in myself to bargain for a new car. \u00a0My trips to the car lot start and end with, \u201cSell me a car\u201d and I haven\u2019t once walked away unhappy with the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During my junior year in high school, our band director Bill Saari decided we should march in the July Cherry Festival Parade in Traverse City, MI. \u00a0If the name sounds somewhat familiar, I recently found his picture in some old Mass High annuals as he started his teaching career as a music teacher in the Greenland Township School. \u00a0His pitch was simple: \u00a0to qualify for the trip, one had to sell at least ONE case of candy. \u00a0As I recall, they were boxes of individual chocolate mints and turtles that came 24 to a case. \u00a0There was no possible way I was going to miss the trip but I still felt like someone kicked me in the stomach when they handed out the boxes at the start of the sale. \u00a0While some of my bandmates took four, five and even six cases with a gleam in their eye, I took my one case and headed home feeling like I was carrying a cannon ball. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I made my first sale right away thanks to my mother. \u00a0Actually, I liked the chocolate mints enough I bought one myself, so the first day it was two down, twenty two to go. \u00a0We were given a month to sell ourselves into the trip, so I managed to avoid any further thoughts of selling until the last week. \u00a0I was starting to consider just buying the rest myself when my mother suggested that I at least take a trip up the 1500 block of Norway Avenue and give our neighbors a chance to relieve me of my burden. \u00a0With heavy resignation, I started up the street one house at a time. \u00a0Mrs. Herlick next door took one off my hands as did Mrs. Bowers (my old piano teacher) and Mr. Buissier. \u00a0The only problem was there were only five more houses in my block and I was still toting 19 boxes. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next house had belonged to the Lee family, but they had moved recently and not being all that nosy, I did not realize that the new owners were a professor and his family who were apparently \u00a0newly arrived from India. \u00a0The woman who answered the door in a colorful sari took me by surprise, but she smiled most pleasantly when I gave her my sales pitch. \u00a0When I finished, she smiled again, \u00a0turned on her heels and went back into the house without saying a word. \u00a0After a few uncomfortable minutes trying to figure out what to do next, I started a slow retreat back to the sidewalk when I heard her calling: \u00a0\u201cBoy, oh boy, come, come,\u201d as she waved me \u00a0back to the porch. \u00a0She handed me some bills and took two boxes.\u201d \u00a0I said, \u201cThank you so much\u201d as she smiled again and once again disappeared into the house. \u00a0My first double sale!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next house had been recently constructed and was owned by a woman who worked at one of the administration offices at the college. \u00a0Mrs. Bishop was very agreeable and apologized for only buying one box (\u201cIf I buy them, I will only eat them,\u201d is how she put it). \u00a0I only sold one box but it took me twenty minutes as she told me half of her life story and how she came to live in my neighborhood. \u00a0She did buy a box so I wasn\u2019t going to be rude and just trot away, but time was wasting away and I still had the lion\u2019s share of my candy to sell. \u00a0With four houses left, I was able to unload a box each at the Farrell\u2019s and Peterson\u2019s, but \u00a0no one answered the door at the house in between them. \u00a0\u00a0I as soon as I hit the intersection of Norway and Waldo, \u00a0I turned for home. \u00a0There were only 3 houses in the next block and it was a steeper hill than the 1500 block, so I packed it in and resigned myself to buying the rest just so I wouldn\u2019t have to do any more selling. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t an unpleasant task, but I kept thinking about <\/span>The Death of a Salesman<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sensing my impending plan to gorge myself on a dozen plus boxes of mint truffles, my mother came to the rescue and took the rest off my hands. \u00a0I didn\u2019t want to even ask what she was going to do with them because I was so anxious to be done selling, I thought, \u201cHey, a sale is a sale.\u201d \u00a0I wasn\u2019t the only one who made the minimum requirement for the trip, but it still hurt my pride to look at the sale totals on the wall and see my lowly X in the bottom square of the sales chart. \u00a0There were several columns filled to the point that those dozen or so super salesmen could probably have funded the whole affair, but I snuck in under the wire and resolved to never have to sell anything again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With this back story spinning in my head, I asked Jim O if we could just charge a set fee for everyone who wanted to go on the trip instead of selling stuff. \u00a0Then, as now, there were many groups in the area fundraising for various reasons and it seemed reasonable to not put another fundraising group into the mix. \u00a0\u201cYou can do that, \u201c Jim O said, \u201cas long as you don\u2019t make anyone pay. \u00a0If they want to go, fine, if not, then you can\u2019t force them to pay.\u201d \u00a0I assured him that I wouldn\u2019t want to force anyone to take a trip. \u00a0The template was set for how we have paid for field trips with the junior high students for the past forty years. \u00a0\u201cPay as you go,\u201d was always pretty economical when the classes were large. \u00a0Over the years, our shrinking student population and rising trip costs have changed the economics a great deal, but we still try to keep the costs down by doing our one and only fundraiser per year (our annual magazine sale) and with proceeds from the two JH operated vending machines in the school.. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whoever first said, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great if they held fundraisers to pay for wars and gave the US military budget to run the schools\u201d would get my vote if they ran for office today.. \u00a0Watching the school populations in the Upper Peninsula shrink has been painful. \u00a0To rub salt in our wounds, the Michigan Department and Education and the state politicians have decided to channel millions if not billions of dollars to non-public schools and non-educational uses. \u00a0I fantasize what all of the Upper Peninsula school districts would be able to do if the state gave us the same bailout money they gave to the Detroit Public Schools (a plan that failed, miserably, I might add).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I hate fundraising, but what opportunities would we be able to offer our students if we relied only on the subpar amount of state aide we are given to run the schools? \u00a0We are mindful of and deeply appreciative to all of the folks in our communities who dig deep to help us help our students. \u00a0If anyone has a rich uncle or aunt out there to whom they would like to plead our case, please send them my phone number. \u00a0Perhaps they will be more helpful than the State of Michigan has been over the past decades. \u00a0Educational funding and support needs to look forward to 2020, not slide back to 1920. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video: \u00a0Who says\u00a0Money\u00a0<\/em>better than Pink Floyd?