Kiddie fundrasiers

Mom brought home some sort of a danish recently...apparently some kids in my old high school are doing some kind of fundraiser (probably for senior trip) and are selling pre-made danish loaf things in a box that only require baking. The shitty part is this eight-inch danish cost my mom $12. She bought it because her co-worker's kid was selling them and she, I guess, felt obligated to help out. Even though she could get a danish that's a foot long for like $3 at the local Aldi's in the same flavor that was already baked and iced.

For what it's worth, the danish was delicious. But not worth $12. What is with these kids who sell shit like buckets of cookie dough or pastry dough for an insane amount of money? I recall being in high school and the fundraisers involved selling either lollipops in really great flavors (2 for $1) or these really awesome candy bars that were $1 each. Things students themselves could often afford as well as parents. What the shit is with this overpriced raw pastry goo? Shit, I can go get a tube of generic chocolate chip cookie dough from Wal-Fart for less than $3.

Breeders behind this, no doubt. Rather than have a bake sale and raise money little by little, they figure they can coerce people into buying shitty cookie dough for $10+ and say it's 'for the kidsssss'...which it is. But it's still a ridiculous price. I say go back to selling candy bars - I guarantee for every one bucket of shit they could sell, they'd sell 10 candy bars to people who didn't feel obligated.and bitter.

Oh Gawd, I know what you mean, Cambion! I can remember the band selling Gummi Bears at my high school. Those sold really well, though they also ended up stuck to walls, ceilings, etc. So the school forbids Gummi-anything now. Bummer...

True confessions here. Back in the day, when the entire music department went to D.C. on tour, we had to sell incredibly expensive shit, er...cheese and sausage, candles, candy, etc. I hated selling things and didn't try really hard. Basically its a ripoff, and the teachers know it; the parents probably know it too. But whatever you didn't sell, your parents had to pay (trip expenses) to make up for it. Them's the breaks, I guess.

Here's what I don't get...each year, my high school has a 'senior auction', where the underclassmen can bid on a senior to be their slave for a day. The proceeds went to the senior trip fund, and some kids were determined to win - the most popular seniors would sometimes 'sell' for triple-digit amounts! I recall one popular guy being won for like $200, but for some reason, now the highest bid anyone can place is $50. The school has always gotten by selling candy bars, lollipops and doing other not horridly expensive stuff and everyone always has a great time on the senior trip.

I usually see the "buy 2 ounces of raw cookie dough for $20" thing happening among grade schoolers. I guess high schoolers are getting desperate. I just don't see why, say, the home economics class couldn't have a bake sale. Even if they asked for Momma and Poppa's financial help, it's not hard to make brownies out of a box and sell them for a quarter.

Quote

Breeders behind this, no doubt. Rather than have a bake sale and raise money little by little, they figure they can coerce people into buying shitty cookie dough for $10+ and say it's 'for the kidsssss'

And it is shitty cookie dough. I bought that crap ONE time. Never again. It was disgusting. We always sold those $1 candy bars for our school fundraisers. Those same exact candy bars now sell for $2. Inflation, I guess.

Quote
Cambion
I guess high schoolers are getting desperate. I just don't see why, say, the home economics class couldn't have a bake sale. Even if they asked for Momma and Poppa's financial help, it's not hard to make brownies out of a box and sell them for a quarter.

In the school I taught at, the company that handled food service (I believe it was Marriott) had a non-compete clause in their contract. Kids couldn't have any bake sales during scheduled lunch periods in the cafeteria or anywhere else in the building, which really hampered their ability to make money at it. Bake sales were held before and after school hours in the lobby, and never did very well because so many kids in the district rode the bus.

If I totaled it all up over five years, I'd bet I spent a fortune on all of that crap the kids sold for the endless parade of band trips, cheerleading uniforms, and other club fundraisers that were always going on. And although it's been said before, the food items were consistently disgusting.

The ONLY thing I will ever buy from a child is girl scout cookies, they're sealed from their stinking hands, need no special care, and are always delicious.

"It truly is the one commonality that every designation of humans you can think of has, there's at least one asshole."
--Me

The pizza freaks me out even more.

I believe that the reason the products they sell are getting shittier and more expensive is because fund raiser companies know that they can get away with it. Schools no longer support or encourage (and often discourage) door to door sales and group sales that takes a group of kiddies and places them together in a certain area like at BBQ and cake sales, due to the liability of it being called a "school related function". They know that every retard kyd will show up and many will be unsupervised as moomie drives on off after having dropped off Spazley. Then you have the little gangsters and whores in training who will use candy sales as a way to get out of the house and wreak havoc on the community. Then there's always the worry that a perv will snatch them off of the streets or inside their house to molest them if he should happen to solicit the stranger-perv. It's just not worth it. SO, that leaves the sales to the parents who work with and have adults as neighbors, fellow church people, club members, etc....... who they can harrass to buy this shit. The kyds can't be held responsible for handling money any more either because either they steal it, or it makes them a target as they carelessly flash it around at school or talk about it openly.

Parents have to handle the sales and distribution now and the fundraising companies know that they will be selling to people who can shell out that $12, instead of a measly dollar for a candy bar. Anyway, that's why I think that it has changed. Kyds are too stupid, too irresponsible, too lazy, or too sheltered to do ANYTHING on their own anymore. I don't know why they just don't dispense with the bullshit and pay the kyds way to zoo or wherever, because it would be a hell of a lot easier than dealing with all of that nonsense.

When my sis and I were in middle and high school, our mom didn't allow us to participate in the cheesy and flashy fundraisers that were held. I don't even remember what the goods for sale were, but I remember that there were tons of (cheap) flashy prizes like cheap radios and stuff and I remember resentfully wanting some of that stuff. Looking back, I think the only folks who make any money are the fundraising companies providing the overpriced junk, shilled for free by the pool of unpaid saleskids. I won't buy any of that stuff any more.

We always buy GS cookies and food stuffs for fund raisers but only if it's commercially manufactured, #1 I don't trust the dirty tentacles of breeders and #2 most of them don't know how to make shit.

There is ALWAYS somebody's kid here at work selling shit, order forms a-plenty on the kitchen bulletin boards.

When I was in band we made money for our trips and uniforms by striking a deal with the local Krispy Kreme bakery. Throughout the week we got orders for donuts and on Friday they came in and were delivered fresh. In my area the main fundraiser kids do these days is Spirit Cards. Local companies buy coupon space on the card and kids sell the cards for $10.00 each. When you consider that the deals on the cards, it's well worth it (rent 3 movies get 1 rental free, buy 1 Dairy Queen sundae get 1 free, etc.)

Count me in as one of those kids who hated to sell.

Tub after tub of rotten cookie dough, fugly shirts, smelly candles - and all for one of those pocket radios or a silly plastic trinket that broke when it was mailed to you...I was so embarrassed trying to hawk that stuff to my family that my mom just said "here, let's just pay for the field trip..."

The band kids always did WAY better fundraisers than we Key Clubbers, like the Spirit Cards Benjie referred to. We just sold icky cookie dough. xD;

Ohh yeah, I forgot my high school also did Krispy Kreme sales and Yankee Candle sales. I never sold anything because I wasn't in band, choir, or on the track or swim teams or the cheerleading squad. I see no problems with reasonably priced stuff being sold, and I know Yankee Candles are typically like $20, so they don't count.

I recall my elementary school doing a yearly magazine sale, where each subscription was worth only one point. There were prizes like lollipops for one point or shitty oversized sunglasses for two points. There were some cool prizes like a bubble machine, a fiberoptic light, strobe light and a couple other things that were up to 70 points (who the hell could sell 70 magazine subscriptions??). And then the class that sold the most subscriptions would get the annual mascot, which was almost always a big carnival plushie. The little kids especially would be awed by these cool items and do their damnedest to sell subscriptions...I did too for a while, but then I realized I could jut go to Spencer's and get my own fiberoptic light for the cost of one subscription, so I quit selling unless someone really wanted a magazine. Then I'd just grab an order form from the magazine in the grocery store

I'd love to see an art sale as a fundraiser, but I know most kids would think their shitty stick figure crayon drawing is worth $100 and then nothing would get sold since there's usually only one or two great art students in the school a year.

Back home, we didn't have that crap to sell.

To make our trip to the circus (grade 3), we went door-to-door and took people's empties up to the local bar. Seriously. (We also had a walkathon.) Aren't small towns grrrr-eat?

I never had to sell anything, so I guess I was lucky. My Mom would have thrown a huge fit if the school had forced me to, because she was totally against that crap (bugging people for money and, of course, going door-to-door and/or talking to strangers).