Easter Fundraising in Sweden

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Hi, welcome to the PTA Podcast. My name is Yvonne, and I've been a PTA volunteer for a few years now. But I'm just one of thousands of volunteers up and down the country who all want to make a difference to their schools. PTAs are becoming even more crucial in UK schools to boost budget, and I find it fascinating to talk to other volunteers about the different approaches they take. So please join me in this podcast to share information, generate ideas, debate issues and celebrate success. And I hope that you can take something away for your PTA today. It was really hard. But that does make my victory in crossing the line even more sweet. But despite that, I feel a huge sense of achievement from completing it. It was such a great experience. So we went past jazz bands and rock bands. Because they had a fantastic beat that that you just fell in line with with your steps, and it really made you run, you know, carry on running and not stop for a walking break. And then the people standing by the side of the roads had made so many different signs, like they were cheering on particular friends and family, or some people had just made generic signs that were for anybody. So a couple of people had a cardboard sign that said tap for power, and then they'd kind of drawn a handprint on it so you could like high-five the sign and get some power from the sign. And another one I saw said Wine Now, spelt W-H-I-N-E. And then it said for glass of wine later. And then another one said don't stop to walk now, everybody's looking. So there were some really funny ones. So it was it was really entertaining to keep an eye out and try and read some of the signs as we went past. It was a great distraction from the hard part of running. And then also people had um bowls of sweets and jelly babies and um fruit pastels and things that they were just handing out to the runners as we went past, and we could just help ourselves every so often. So that was a great energy boost as well as you went round. And it was so wonderful to see the amount of people who would come out from their houses to cheer on complete strangers going on a run that they'd chosen to do. It was quite surreal in a way, but it did make me think about uh it did make me sort of draw in comparison with being a volunteer on the PTA to volunteering to stand outside your house to cheer someone on, you know, which is giving a bit of your time and energy to somebody else. So it was it was really nice to actually be on the other end of that and experiencing somebody who's a total stranger shouting my name, saying, Keep going, Yvonne, you can do it. So it was it was an absolutely wonderful experience, and um, I'm so proud of my my amazing feet and legs that just kept plodding around the course until I finished and crossed the finish line. Uh yeah, it was just fantastic. It as I said, it was really tough, and there were moments where I wasn't sure I could do it, but going with a friend really, really helped, and uh I'm just so proud of myself that I did it, yay me. Um, so I'm basking in the glory of my half marathon, and I haven't been doing all that much PTA work recently uh because I've obviously been preparing for my half marathon, um, but uh we've got a couple of weeks to to go until the Easter holidays, and so we have been um organising our Easter egg hunt, which is coming up at school, um which is actually a very simple event. So I'll just quickly tell you how we're organizing ours. So what we've decided on to be the process of of organising this event is based on many many years of running a very similar event, and we feel like we've kind of honed the process down now. So, what we do now is we buy one chocolate Easter egg per child at the school. We have about 85 children, so we automatically buy 85 eggs, and then we um ask parents for a donation towards those eggs, and we add on a tiny bit of money on top just so that we can cover the cost and make a small profit, and it is a really small profit, it might only be 50p per egg. Um we've also so we ask parents to donate that money via the s the online school payment system because we also need to know from parents um whether their child has any special dietary requirements, which means they might not be able to have just a you know normal kind of Easter egg. Um so we are also collecting information on whether they want a free from egg. So we basically have added a tick box or drop-down menu or something. The school admin officer has sorted this out for us just to say, just so parents can indicate if their child needs a different sort of egg. Um so that's kind of all taken care of on the online ordering system. And what we do is when we have collected the eggs from the supermarkets, um, we uh get a book of raffle tickets and we get a box of the hollow plastic Easter eggs that you buy for Easter egg hunts, and you can fill it with whatever you want. So we place uh uh one raffle ticket uh inside the little plastic egg and the corresponding raffle ticket we sell the tape on top of a chocolate egg. Then all the little plastic eggs which contain a raffle ticket will be hidden in the school grounds for the children to find. They find one plastic egg each, so we try and make sure they're not really easy to find. And then once they found their little plastic egg, they take it into the school, they open a plastic egg to get their raffle ticket out, and they find the corresponding egg with a raffle ticket on top um on a table in the hall, and then they they won that one basically. We have about four different types of chocolate egg, so um, I think they are Smarty's ones, mini egg ones, buttons, cabries buttons, and I can't remember the other one, maybe Fredo's or something. Um so there's a little element of surprise in that they don't know which one they're going to win. Um but as I said, we've kept it very simple. Um the only uh tricky thing with this uh Easter egg hunt, which uh I have found to be the case for Easter egg hunts in the past few years, is that obviously we want to buy the eggs when they are on special offer in the supermarkets, and I don't know if you've been uh trying to track when the supermarkets are putting on their special offers, but to be honest, this year it's been a complete nightmare. So I do remember before COVID that when the supermarkets had their Easter egg offers on, they would last for quite a few weeks. And I remember that we used to buy much bigger eggs um for one pound um when they were on special offer, and then we would sell tickets for £1.50 or £2. Uh, but the children would come away with a decent sized egg at the end of it. And this year the the price of Easter eggs has just been ridiculous. I mean, we have got our Easter eggs now, but they're feel like they're really small. We went for the ones that are that weigh about 100 grams, um, which is an egg with some, you know, like the mini egg ones, just uh an egg with some put about five mini eggs inside them and you hardly get anything at all. Um, but we had to buy the ones that size because we wanted to keep the price down for parents. Um and uh very luckily one of our parents works at a supermarket and so she was able to help us determine when the supermarket was going to put its offer on. I was really annoyed with myself that I missed the Morrison's offer, which I think the eggs went down to 75p or a pound, I think. Um, which I saw happen because we have a Morrison's very close to my house. Uh but I did I didn't do anything about it because I thought it would be like that for a few weeks, which it has been in the past, but the offer was only on for a week, so I completely missed it. And I was really cross with myself for not being a bit more proactive, but you know, that's just what happened. So we were very lucky then that another supermarket had their offer on after Morrison, so we were able to take advantage of it, but it wasn't quite as good. I think we got them for £1.20, I think. Um so we're going to make a small profit of about 80p on um on these two eggs if every parent does donate some money. The free from eggs, however, are going to be £3 each. So we are going to be making a loss on those, which is very unfortunate. Um But as I said, I wanted to try and make sure it was inclusive for everybody. But I think next year we're gonna have to raise our prices. It's just so frustrating. Um and it's so stressful when one supermarket has this offer on here, once and then next week it's a different supermarket, and then it's another supermarket. You don't know how long the offer's going to last for. And all we're trying to do is just buy them at a cheaper price so we can offer them to parents and make a small profit. And it's I just find it so frustrating that the supermarkets um just chop and change like this all the time. Oh and then I think ASDA had an offer on Easter eggs and took them right down to 60p, but you could only buy six at a time. We don't have an Asda very close to where I live or to where our school is, and I just could not find the time to drive all the way to an Asda and try and sort out 80 eggs. I just couldn't do it. Um, so we missed that one as well. So we haven't really done very well with our Easter eggs, it's been very frustrating. Um, the actual Easter egg hunt itself is really straightforward, but actually buying the Easter eggs seems to be the most stressful part of um of this fundraiser, which is really annoying. Anyway, um in this episode I am going to chat to Amelia, who is uh from Sweden, and she tells me all about how schools work over there, and she also shares her plans of her Easter fundraiser that she's organizing for her daughter's class. So she hasn't had difficulty with uh buying Easter eggs like I have. Um, but she's got a couple of um other ideas that um I thought you might like to listen to just in case it inspires you for something different to try, um, perhaps at one of your PTA events. It doesn't have to be an Easter event. This um her ideas obviously would work at a summer fate or a Christmas fair or just you know a game or something like that. So I hope you enjoy listening to my chat with Amelia and um listening to what she has to say. Hi Amelia and welcome to the PTA podcast. It's so great to have you here. Would you like to introduce yourself to my listeners? Maybe tell them a bit about yourself and your family situation.

Yes, lovely to be here. Um my name's Amelia. I live in a small village in Sweden, sort of north of Stockholm. I have two children, age almost 10 and 12, almost 13.

Um, and I live here with my English husband.

I am a social worker, um and our children go to um the village school.

Excellent. Now we should probably clarify from the start that we know each other very well, don't we? Because we're actually sisters-in-law, because my husband's brother is your husband. So we do know each other very well. I haven't just phoned a random Swedish person to put this interview. So um, and the school in your village, how do you know how many children go to your village school?

So it's divided into the the younger children and the older, and they all go to the same sort of school. But um, so the Sweden uh you start school at six, yeah, and I think we have about between 40 and 50 children from the ages of six to then around 13. Okay. And after that you need to change to the bigger school, which is in the next village over.

Yes, okay. Right. So you've got about 40 or 50 children in total in your village school?

Yeah, there's about a hundred and ten children, maybe all together with the little teeny tiny ones as well, because they go to the same um in the same s school.

Yeah. So you mean one building. Before their age six, there's some sort of I mean we would call it here a nursery or a preschool. I don't know if you use those words, but yeah, it's a you could call it a nursery.

And then we also have the after-school clubs that are also in the same building.

So Yeah.

Everything happens there.

Yeah, it's all going on. Okay. And so at your school, um, do you have a PTA?

We don't, and we do. It's it's very um unclear at the moment.

We uh so for example, in uh UK schools we would have a PTA group or group of parents who would volunteer to raise money for the school as as basically extra cash that goes into the school and it would fund um educational projects normally. Um so, for example, at my school in the last couple of years you've uh raised money for a new school library. So if your school needed to or wanted to make a new school library, how would they get the money to do that?

Uh so the Educational Act, um, all the principles in that is that the all the schooling is free. That means that if we need library or if we need anything else, that is funded by the state or the commune.

Okay, okay.

So we don't raise money for that. The only thing that uh you could raise money for is if it's a trip that is for pure uh pleasure, like non-educational.

Okay, yeah. It's like a fund trip. Yeah. So so whenever your school needs money for something, they can just ask your regional council or government or something, and they will just provide the money?

Yeah, every commune has their own budget for schools, um, and they put in what they need. It could be anything from books to footballs to whatever they they want. Um, and obviously it depends on how the budget is looking, but um, yeah, there's nothing wherever parents would never step in to pay for any of that.

Wow, so that that's such a contrast to um the way it works over here, because most of the time our schools basically don't have enough money to cover all of those things, which is why the PTAs are so important, I think, because they kind of fill those funding gaps that the government just doesn't provide the money. So if we needed new footballs, we have to pay for it ourselves. That sounds really terrible when I think about it, but it's true. That's what we did. It wouldn't go down well here. No, and you know, books in the library, the parents have to buy the books, there's not really a budget at the school for doing that kind of thing. Um, most of the money goes on the teaching staff, um, and then there's not a lot left over for anything else. So uh wow, okay, so that's um from uh an English PTA volunteers' point of view, it's quite galling actually to think that in another country a school can just ask for money and it's given. That's really, really good. Lucky you.

Well, but obviously, I mean there there is a there is a budget for how how much we can we can ask for, but there would never be a case of the children not having books they need or educational things. The only thing is a parent you could be asked to provide is if the children are going on educational trips.

Okay.

So the principle is still that it's free. Yes. So what happens is if the children, and it has to be a very small amount. I mean, the highest I've ever seen in Sweden a school asked for is about 20 pounds.

Okay.

Um, and that was to cover um tickets for trains. However, the principle is still is that it's supposed to be free. So if there are children um like or parents that can't afford to pay the the money, then the school will also pay for that.

Yes, yeah.

But then you have to obviously say that you you might need financial aid for it. But it's um uh they also can you when the our children go on school trips or they uh go to visit different places, the school can they will send out the message and they will say if you would like to provide a packed lunch, you can do so. Otherwise, the school will provide one for them. Wow, it's all about not um separating children out who can and cannot um afford uh specific things.

Yeah. And so do you all the children at the school get free school meals then? Yes. They do.

We never provide any any food. They always pay for that. No. Oh wow. Um so they get a cooked meal, uh, and then if they have after school club, they're also provided food there. Um and yeah, no, nothing that we ever pay for.

So we do have a scheme in this country that there are free school meals for um any families that can't afford them. Um I'm not sure how you sort of qualify for that, but obviously it's not universal, not everybody gets that. And then if um my school is organising a trip, um they then they don't penalise any children that can't afford to go, the school will cover that. So that so the school um in my school's case is aware of the families that would struggle to find the money, and so they would make sure those children are covered, um, but other parents would pay for their own children if they're able to. I mean, I went on a school trip um last week and the coach to get us to the place we were going to and back to school was £350 just the for the coach travel, let alone the tickets to actually get into the museum that we went to. And so um if uh if the school was to cover all of the trips all of the time, it just wouldn't well it just doesn't have the money to do that. So parents do have to contribute to make sure the trip can go ahead, even if the school is um paying the cost of some families who wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise. So there is a bit of that here, but it's not universal, it's not applied to everybody in the same way that it seems to be in Sweden.

Yeah, I think I think the the main point of the Swedish school system is that it should be the same and equal for all, which means that you shouldn't have to apply for certain uh financial aids, or you I mean, we treat all the children the same and all of the parents to sort of uh stop segregation or stop the fact that the children might be bullied because they are not wearing we also don't have uh school uniforms. Okay, um so everyone here just wears wherever they like. Yeah, just for school.

Well, that's good. Yeah, so nobody's having to buy expensive school uniforms either. No, no, no, okay, yeah, it's quite different. Um, okay, so I know you're organising a fundraising event at Easter. So um, could you tell me what what you're fundraising for?

So the the children, uh my daughter came home and said that the children would like to go on a school trip. Now, the school trips um are pure fun, they want to go to an indoor swimming place, and they got three different options depending on how much money they can raise. Okay. Now, in Sweden, there's like every time you have a football team or every time you are doing any form of fundraising, it's the one popular thing to do is to sell pre-prepared cookies.

Okay, okay.

So um there's lots of these. You can sell salami, and there is like um spices and socks and anything, but it's not normally done by the school, it's normally done by if your if your team uh of your football club wants to go somewhere or your riding club or whatever. Okay, and um so. That's the children started talking about that, that they were gonna, you know, go out and sell all these cookies. Um but again, there is no school takes no responsibility for this because it's it's fundraising for something outside school.

So it's like a fun, like an end-of-term treat or something like that. Yes. They just decided they wanted a treat, so they're gonna fundraise for one. Yeah, I like that. That's very cool.

It's changed a little bit because when I um when I was a child, what you did was when you finished sixth grade, you always went on a special trip. That was what you did, and you basically saved money from when you started first grade, every week you handed in like a pound or 50p or whatever it was back then, um, and sort of that you got then a collection at the end. Well, after a whole what six years? Yeah, you basically collect it for six years, yeah. And the teacher had to keep track of like, have you paid this month? Have you paid this month? And uh yeah, it was a bit different back then, and then we had actually the the PTAs, we had you know, um parents that were a lot more involved and they stood up for the children's rights when they weren't happy with things, and um, but that's changed a lot, a lot since I went to school. And the deal is now that a lot of parents do not agree to have uh the collection every month. Okay, because it's also unfair on the children that come from different sort of socio-economical backgrounds and can't afford it, and they get sort of singled out in the classroom, and school don't want to take responsibility for this, and uh so then what they've come up with is that okay, well, then day children can sell various things. Okay. Now, I don't know how many cookies I've bought because I can never say no, and there's random children coming to the door. So my first thought was no, no more cookies, no, I don't don't need any more cookies. Let's do an event. And a few years back, I organized uh egg hunting event for the village um hall to raise money for them. Yeah. And um, yeah, I just decided to do the same. Now the way it works here is really funny because there is no PTA, there's no group of parents. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that, yeah. So what I had to do was I sent an email to the school teacher and said, Right, I will do a fundraising. Okay, you just on your own. On my own. However, if any children or parents would like to help, you know, that'd be absolutely fine. Can you send out the message um in the sort of communication app that we have? Okay, yeah. So there's like a weekly letter going out saying what they've done. Um so she did that and she sent my number and my email address. Okay. And now there is 19 children in the class, and three parents um, you know, said, Great, uh, we can buy coffee or we can bake. Oh, that's it.

So you got three volunteers. I mean, that's more than I was expecting. Yeah, I would say that's pretty good actually, based on my own experience of asking for volunteers.

But it's because we've never done this before, the school has never done it this way. So I booked the village hall and I managed to get it for free. Oh, brilliant. Okay. So we don't pay for it. Yeah. Um, and then actually yesterday I went into the classroom and had like a half an hour sort of discussion with the children of how they wanted to do things, how much things should pay, yeah. Hello, how much things should cost, um, and who's gonna bake and what they're gonna bake and whatever. Because they're gonna have to work. The children's going to have to work for it because it's their collection.

Yeah, and it's their trip that they've chosen to go on. So then comes the next so it gets worse if I tell me.

Once you have collected all the money, you then have to or the parents then have to make sure to book the trip and take the children because this is not the school thing. Right, okay. I'm guessing it now. This is all on Google. School school has very gracefully said that you may borrow the children on a school day.

Okay.

Lovely. However, we will not attend. Okay.

So now you need to find enough parents to actually go on the trip.

Yeah, but not only that, there is a law that states how many children, how many adults per child ratio you have to do if you're going to a swimming pool. Oh, and what is your ratio? Does that the ratio according to the school is one adult on every four, can have four children. Oh, okay. So you're looking for a lot of adults.

Oh, yes.

Um, and also the transport.

So is this sorry, are you just fundraising for one class to do this trip out of your school, or is it the whole school?

No, no, it's a it's a double class, so it's the five and six. Normally it's uh only the sixth graders to go. Okay. Um but because my daughter is in uh what we call a double class, yeah, there is two different years in one. Yeah, okay. So so they all get to go. But the majority of them are Anna's age. Yeah. My daughter's age.

And did you say there were 19 children? Yes, in total. Okay, so you're looking at about five adults, I suppose, then, roughly, aren't you?

Yeah.

Yeah, and and hopefully cars. Because if you're going because you're gonna get a coach, it's gonna get very expensive. Yeah, okay. I have full faith in the parents though.

They're gonna be great. It's gonna be amazing. They're gonna sort it. They're gonna love it. They're gonna love volunteering because volunteering is excellent. So so have you screwed down the volunteers for the actual trip yet, or is that later on?

No, no, no, no, that's later on because we need to know where we're going. Oh, okay. Uh and then it depends on how we're gonna get there because the further away we go, the more complicated it gets to get people to drive. Yes, yes.

So all all you know at the moment is your brief, is they want to go to a fun swimming pool, but they haven't picked a particular one. No, they picked three depending on the costs. Oh, okay. So how much you raise, it depends how much you raise.

Yeah.

Ah, okay, that's very interesting. Okay. Um, so you've got three parents who are willing to do something, like provide coffee or bake a cake or something. Yeah. And and you're still in charge of this whole event. On your own. Yeah. So so basically you are the organizing team on your own.

Yes.

Yes, okay. With little tiny helpers, right? Yes. Because I got the children. Yeah. I've got them on my side. I was in there yesterday, sort of, you know, rallying them up. Um so there's going to be different kinds there's different stations. You have to go in and let the children decide on some things. Yeah. But then some things they're not allowed to decide. Yeah. So they're going to be They can't come up with crazy ideas, can't they? Yeah, they're cost calculations for interesting. Yeah. How much they wanted to charge. But so you've got uh first you've got egg hunt. Okay. Um, where basically we have an area outside where we hide about 200 eggs in various colours. The youngest, the younger children gets to find colours of the eggs that are the same colour. Okay. So they get a piece of paper where it's like a blue and a red and a green or whatever. Oh okay, they just have to match the eggs. Yeah. And then we send them out, and then when they come back, uh one of the children who wants to go on the school trip has to check off that it's the right amount of eggs. Yeah. And then the next child gives them a goodie bag for that. Okay. And then the next child goes back and hides the eggs again.

Oh, okay. So you've got a couple so you've got three children organizing that little store there. Yes. Okay. And do you know what's in the goodie bag yet?

Yes, it's going to be pick and mix sweets.

Oh, my favourite.

Yes. Easter themed, I hope. Of course. Excellent. Uh I bought little tiny bags uh that looks like bunnies. So excellent. Or make up about a hundred of those bags, I think. We'll see what happens.

And are they at your event, are they going to pay to take part in each station or stalls? So they don't pay an entrance fee and then everything's included. They're gonna choose what they do and take money at each one. Okay, yeah. Okay. So that's the first one. That's the first one. That cost 30 Swedish crowns. Um which is about three pounds, isn't it? Yeah, less, yeah. Three pounds? Yeah. Yeah, that's that's quite a lot. Yeah. No, no. Okay. Sweets are expensive. They are they are expensive. I know. I when I did my story sweet shop last year, they I realized how expensive sweets actually are. Yes, okay, carry on. So the first egg hunt gets them in the mood. Yeah.

And then we have um like a f uh well, you don't have that. It's uh fishing expedition.

Oh yes, do explain how this works, because I love this um idea. But no, we you're right, we don't have this over here.

No. Um so you find the the correct word for us is fiskadum. Fiskadum. Fiskidum. Yes. So what you do is you take a door, uh doorway, and you put up this um blanket. You can have a very elaborate blanket with fish on or seaweed or whatever, or you could just put up any old sheet. Okay. And then on one side, so on the side uh where uh the participant isn't, there is someone hiding behind this sheet with uh various goodie bags. Yeah. And uh on the other side is a child with a fishing rod. Yes. Uh which in all everyone in Sweden has built one of these. And basically you take the mop, right? You screw off the actual mop bit, and then you have have a string, and then you've got one of these uh closed pegs on the end of it. Oh, okay, yes. So the child uh flings it over, yeah, right, fishing, yeah, and sometimes you know you get rubbish in the ocean, you get lots of things that you don't want coming up on this string, and then eventually you will get a goodie bag.

So they basically cast over their fishing line, and the the adult on the other side pegs something onto the end, and then they the child reels it in to see what they've caught in inverted commas. And um it could be uh what a shoe or something or a could be rubbish, plastic, yeah, straws. So they're going back in. So they just keep fishing until they win the prize, basically. Is that right? Yeah. Yep. I just think it's such a fun fun idea.

There is no kids' party without this. No, it's brilliant. Do this at the end so they get their goodie bags on their way out. That's cool.

Um and what's in the goodie bags for the fishing?

Oh, it is whatever Amelia found in her basement. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it's like a surprise. Surprise horrible. But I have a tendency for I always buy a lot of things that doesn't get used. So I've got about, you know, 25 new bouncing balls. Everything is new. Um, I got some uh rings and bracelets for kids. I've got some uh little games that you kind of play with. And it's like um stocking fillers, yeah. Kind of thing.

Yeah, because you do a lot of parties, don't you, Amelia? So you have a lot of stuff left over from all the other ones, I suppose. And that'll be quite nice actually, because they'll all get something a little bit different, won't they, then? They will, yeah.

Um so I organised a little troop of girls coming over uh on Monday to actually make all these bags. Oh, okay, great. Alright. So they're gonna have a little taco night and uh sort out my bags, which is gonna be good.

So are you going to aim for a bag uh per child? Because I suppose the have you have you thought about um who's actually coming to the event? Because it won't just it's obviously not just the children going on the trip. I mean anybody are you advertising it so that anybody in the school can come and join in the fun at your Easter event? Yes. Yeah.

Um I made this really nice sign and I put it up in our local Facebook group, and then I put it up in the Facebook group for the next village and the next village, and then come Monday and the children are gonna get um 300 pieces of paper to put in every letterbox around the village.

Okay.

Um I like the fact you're really using the child's labour force. Oh, yeah, to the full extent. Yeah, no, I think this is great. So, how are you working out then how many goodie bags to make? I'm just gonna have to guess. You're just gonna guess. Okay.

I'm I I have guessed a hundred of each. That's what I've guessed. Yeah. Because some people or some children want to do it twice because they might fish something they didn't really like, so then they'll just fish again.

Ah, so so how does the money for the fishing game work? What do they put? 20 crowns. 20 crowns for one one fish. One fish, and you might be unlucky and get a shoe. No, no, no, no, no.

You do end up with like a goodie bag in the end. Oh, so okay. Yeah. But but you might not you might want to go again. You might really like what you got in your goodie bag and definitely want another one. Yeah. Or you know, or you gave it to your sister because it wasn't. Yeah, it wasn't what you liked. Yeah. Okay.

Okay, so what's after the fishing?

So after the fishing, they have the the tickets. Okay. Alright, so um basically you get a ring with all of the the tickets uh from one to three hundred. So this is a big ring.

It's a raffle. A raffle. So all the so just to kind of explain it to people that don't understand, is it a metal ring?

It's a metal ring, yes.

A big metal ring with all raffle tickets on it, attached on it.

Yeah, and there's two parts to the raffle ticket. So when you take one off, it leaves a little piece of paper left on the ring, okay, which has the corresponding number to the one you took. Yes, I understand. Okay. So so then what you do in the end is that you unhook the ring and you pour all of those half tickets into uh uh into sort of bag, and then the children get to draw the numbers and and have that in the microphone calling them out.

Oh, okay. So how many prizes will you have? If you've got 300 tickets, how many prizes are you going to have from that?

Well, see, this is the beauty. I have 300 tickets, but I also have another ring which has 200 tickets and another ring that has 300 tickets. Okay. So you're really just gonna go with the flow here. Yeah. Uh I'm gonna start with 300 tickets, and if we run out of tickets before because the event is only two hour long.

Yeah, that sounds like a good amount of time though. I think two-hour events are brilliant, perfect amount of time. Yeah, yeah.

Um, so it's a bit fluent how many tickets we're gonna have. Uh, but we are gonna have about 40 prices, but they're decent prices. Yeah. I was just gonna say Are these also coming out of your basement? No, but the thing is, right, I've got a gift cupboard. I always have I always had it since the kids were little because they they're really not good at planning. They're saying I'm going to a party tomorrow. Yeah, okay. And you have to go into your cupboard. So I've got um, you know, quite large Lego models, and I've got all of these LOL doll things and anything that their friends are now too old for. Yes. So they wouldn't be using my gifting uh cabinet. So therefore, yes.

See, this is a great decluttering opportunity for you, isn't it? I didn't thought of it that way. But on a serious note, you are providing a lot of the prizes for this event, so uh from your own generosity, you're making them raise more money because you are not obviously buying those prizes.

I know you've bought the suites for the other thing, but um Yeah, so it so it would be cheaper for me in a way to just give them the cash uh in the end of the day, but that's not the point. The point is that it's it's um I believe it's very important that the children are gonna have to work for what they want. They have to learn now that things are not free. Yeah, you know, if you want something, you're gonna have to work for it.

Yeah. So, in uh so if I was organising um a similar event here and I needed prizes, one of the things I might try and do is to go into a local big shop um and say to them, Look, I need a hundred um small gifts for a stall I'm running at a summer fate. Would you be able to donate anything? And I would hope to get some of the prizes at least donated for free, so that then when the um children come along and pay their money, all of the money I take is profit. So I wouldn't have to, you know, offset that against the cost of the um of the prizes. Did do you do does that happen in Sweden? Would you do that? No. No.

If you go into a shop and ask for free stuff, they're gonna go, uh no. Okay.

No, well a lot of people a lot of people do say no, that's why it's so difficult.

Um no, but you you got it and it's also quite fun because you it's it's funny to me, like we so every summer, uh on a different note, every summer we have this uh this um sort of finishing school and we bake. So then there is like these poor tea poor poor um parents that are in this PE thing or whatever you want to call it. You basically you get chosen according to your surname or your child's surname. So they put together a trip every every term you get one of those. Yeah. So then you get asked to bake, and that's um amazingly fun every year because some parents say that um, okay, I can bake uh and I'll donate because because you have to then uh bake the same thing. You all bake the same thing, it's a beauty, right? You you decide you have to do rock poly polis with strawberry jam, right? That's the thing. You all have to do it. Okay, and um then you have parents. So what happens is the money that you collect there, they go to extra fun things like movie nights or whatever school you know provides. Yeah. Um, but some parents they bring receipts in for the ingredients of the cake. Ah, right. Oh, awkward. Now it's a little bit awkward because it's not parents that couldn't afford it. It's parents that on principle would like, you know, 2.5 eggs back that they put into their cake. Um, so to avoid that this time, I've been very clear in saying that if you want to bake, it's a donation. Don't expect to get anything back.

Okay, that sounds like a good plan to be clear from the start. Yeah. Wow, I don't I don't know how I would react if somebody brought in a receipt who donated a cake to one of my cake sales. I'm a bit worried I'd laugh. It's very common here. It's a not I'm a bit worried I would just laugh when they when they gave that to me just out of sheer like, what what on earth is this? Why are you giving me this for? It's called charity. Wow. Okay, well, you different attitudes, I guess, different systems. Very interesting to hear how it all works. So so what do you so are you having a cake stall at your Eastern store? Yes, yes.

So but so after the raffle, then I yeah, I went to the children and there's two ways of doing raffles, obviously. One is that you win directly, like you know what number, and then you take your prize. Yes. So I went to the children and I tried to explain to them what would happen if you don't do that. Like if you don't give out the prizes straight away, then you force everyone to stay a bit longer at your event because they have to wait for the raffle numbers to be, you know, shouted out.

Ah, so are you saying then that once a child took a raffle ticket off the ring, you would know if it was a winner or not straight away? That's the way you you could do it.

That's not the way we're doing it this time. Okay, okay. Because if you did it that way, then all of the good prices will go quite quickly from the table, you know, and then people will leave when they got their answers on the tickets. One way of forcing Swedish people to socialise with each other for a longer period of time is, you know, that they could possibly win something at the end of it. Yes. Um, yes, so that's why we're not going to do the tickets straight away. They all have to wait until the end of the event to find out if they won something.

Yeah, that well, that's how our raffles normally work, and that's exactly why we have raffles at events because people then wait till the end. And then it's drawn in the sort of grand finale kind of kind of way. Yeah.

Yeah. So so then, while obviously they're waiting for their tickets, uh they are gonna have coffee and cakes. Yes, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. So how are you getting all your cakes then? So random children raised their hand yesterday and said, I will bake. So I'm just um waiting to see whatever shows up on Sunday. Um yeah. Uh sound like a good spread.

Have you got a plan B in case the children don't appear with the cakes? Do you think how reliable do you think this these volunteers are?

I don't think they'll be finding stuff in my basement. Um no, um, with the parents that are going that said they're going to help. Know for a fact that three of them will bake. Okay. Okay. And I do believe that the other children will bake. I am I have faith. It's going to be fine. Great. This is good. I like your like your confidence. But it's very much planning without uh parents because um so there's a different I I told my colleague I was doing this and she's like, ugh, you're one of them. You're one of them that forces us to do things. And I said, No, I didn't. I said it was volunteer. And she's like, okay, well then it's fine. But I hate when they when they say that you you have to show up and you have to help. I've I've you know you have to be very careful because some people just don't want to do it.

Yeah, I don't think I don't think we ever do that here. It is all volunteer based. Yeah, I don't think you've got to do it.

I think Swedish people in general, we don't do a lot of volunteer stuff.

No. Do you do you go to a lot of fairs and events and things like that? Do you have a lot of those generally? Uh no, it's more like markets. Oh, okay. Okay.

So you could go from a market and there might be a like a fun stall there, but it's always organized by businesses and not by so you don't have a lot of little charity events?

No. Oh, interesting. Okay. So it is quite a different kind of thing f for most of your village to come to this event then. It's not like these things happen all the time. No, they only happen in this village when I organise them, by the way.

But it's no, but it's uh no, it doesn't happen very often, no. But people are really good at actually showing up and and they just don't want to be responsible for it.

Okay. Yeah, well I think a lot of people feel like that, and I think that's why it's hard to get volunteers to do anything, because they they don't want to be responsible and they don't want to take it on, and yeah, that's why it's hard to, you know, get somebody to head up a PTA, for example, because of the responsibility that they think is required. Um But yeah, that's quite interesting because it obviously over in the UK we have summer fates, like the village you know, villagers have summer fates, church fates, there's normally Christmas fairs, there'll be Easter things going on. So we have little um moments in the year, all throughout the year, where there will be some sort of charity event somewhere happening, and you can go and spend your money on a stall and know that it's going to that charity. So they're very, very common over here, but it sounds like not so much over there.

No, the charities that you use here would be like the Red Cross or you know, Cancer Foundation or things like that, or for specific things like a cat home or you know. Yeah. But no, not not really ever, on and never for schools really. Uh the Christmas market we went to this year, one of them had a school class there selling um baked goods for their uh class trip. So that can happen sometimes, but then they're part of a commercial setting.

Yeah. Oh, that's very interesting the difference because uh over here in the UK we have a lot of really tiny charities which are very local. So, I mean, for example, my PTA is a tiny local charity that just you know gives its money to the school, and that's the whole reason it's set up. It's just literally for that reason to channel the money it receives towards the school so the school can use it for extra education. So we have a lot of really tiny charities like that over here. Um obviously, you know, people fundraise for the big ones as well, but most of these summer fates and church fates and things are for those really small charities. Quite different, yeah. Different. Okay, so after you've uh had your coffee and your cake, is uh are there any other games to play?

No, that's that's the four stations that I think I can manage with about ten kids, something like that.

And the kids are they gonna be serving the cake and the coffee as well?

Yes, and they promise me they will do the dishes as well.

Oh really?

Okay.

We shall see.

Ah, so now I can understand why you're charging uh three pounds for your Easter egg hunt and two pounds for your fishing, because you haven't got a lot of stalls, you just got a f just a few.

Yeah.

That makes more sense. Um I mean we did the calculation and and sort of if a child wanted to do the Easter hunt, the fishing game, five raffle tickets and uh fika, that would be about a tenner.

Yeah. Uh just for non-Swedish people, fika is um basically uh coffee and cake, which the Swedes have every day, don't you, Amelia? We do. Yeah. So you reckon you're hoping that each child that comes will spend about £10 doing all doing all the stuff.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Something like that. Yeah. And uh we we don't I mean, any profit is is good here, right? Yeah.

Yes.

Which sounds sounds like it's all profit, apart from you had to buy the sweets, I think. No, I I I got a parent to do that. Oh, you did? Oh, that's great. So they were donated from a parent. Does the parent know it was donated? Or are they gonna bring you a receipt?

They might come with a receipt, actually.

I'm not sure.

Okay. But I don't think so. Okay. Well you never know. No, it sounds like you don't. So the only thing I've asked for other than baked goods is I've asked for coffee, lemonade, uh, and sweets. Okay. And the rest I can probably cover.

Mm-hmm.

Uh and then obviously labour.

Yeah. So the children who are behind the stalls who are doing the work to raise the money, are they going to get a chance to take part in any of the activities? Have you got do they so sometimes when we have a um affair and the children are behind the stalls, we h do some sort of rotor system so they can be behind their stall for like half an hour, then they swap out with some friends so that they can go and take part in the activities as well. Are you doing anything like that for the children?

Maybe. I haven't really I've I've given them the job of dividing themselves into the re to the groups. Okay. So we shall see uh whatever that happens. But we also had that discussion because I I asked them, so if everyone that says they're going to bake, if everyone bakes, that means we're gonna have a lot of cakes. Now, what are we gonna do if we don't sell all the cakes? You know, as part of a fika then or with the coffee. Yeah. Um, and the children first said, Oh, we could have we could have like a class thing where we all have uh cakes together, or uh we could just get free cakes, and I said, Okay, well, you know, there is 11 of you here today, right? And if all of you have free cakes, how much does your profit decrease? And the children went, Oh, no, we're not having cakes then. No. So I said, What you could do is you could wrap them up, you know, and get people to bring them home.

Yes, that's a great idea. Yeah. Yeah. So um, when we have a cake sale at my school, we actually have so I found in my PTA cupboard once a massive pile of um paper bags. They were they're quite big paper bags, and on one side of them, it's not paper, it's like cellophane. So they're kind of sea tree on one side. And so, uh I mean I don't know who they were before I started on the PTA, so I don't know who bought them, but they must have bought like a thousand of them or something. Um so when we have a cake sale now, we bring these bags out, and so people buy cakes, um, they might buy cake to eat there and then, and then they might buy cakes to take home. So they're perfect for children to, you know, take a cake home for the rest of their family or something. Um, so you could could maybe get some of those amazing paper bags. I don't know where they came from. You could look in your basement, you might have some right there.

I have. Yeah. And what it's going to be is it's going to be various plates of paw patrol and oil dolls and whatever else has been left over down there, uh, with a plastic bag around it. Yeah.

Uh not as fancy as your bag, but uh well, actually, but yours is on a plate, so actually I think yours is a bit better than mine. Bit more at market. Also a themed plate. That's awesome. That's amazing. Mine's just plain bags. It's different themes for everyone. That's right, yes. And what time is your event being held?

It is uh one o'clock on a Sunday afternoon.

Oh, that sounds pretty good. And oh, so that's gonna be okay with FICA. FICA's not just a morning thing, is it? There's coffee and cake.

You know, you really have to actually consider when you have these events because if you have them too close to 12 o'clock when it's normally lunch for children between 11:30 and 12, then they'll be too full to have coffees. If you have it before, then the parents are gonna say you can't fill up on cakes, you need to have lunch. Yes. So by putting it at one o'clock and then they start with activities means that they might not have, you know, cakes until sort of two. Yeah. That's perfect. Because that's that's what we call melis. It's it's like a midday snack.

Oh, perfect, okay.

Yeah.

Oh, so that you've clearly thought about how it's gonna fit into someone's day. I think that's really important actually, because normally the food and the drinks are where you can make quite a lot of money. Um, and so yeah, you need to make sure people are are gonna be peckish for whatever food it is, you know, whether it's actually having lunch or just having a snack. Oh, I forgot to ask you what drinks you're you're providing.

Uh it will be red and yellow uh lemonade.

Red and yellow lemonade? What what's what's that?

It is exactly as it sounds ever.

So you can either order red lemonade or yellow lemonade?

You can, yeah.

Are they both fizzy?

No, no, no, no, we don't do a lot of fizzy stuff. So it's it's basically squash. Squash.

Oh, okay. So is it what strawberry flavour? What's the red one?

Well, it depends. Uh it could be raspberry, strawberry, or a mixture. Okay. It depends on the parents going to buy it. Uh and the the the yellow one is normally orange.

Right, okay, I see. Yes. So you've just got squash for the kids and coffee for the adults? No tea, just coffee.

We we're not big on tea, you know, no, no.

Okay.

Hot chocolate, no.

No, okay. No.

No, no, let's do it. We're keeping it simple here. Yes.

Yes. And so for the hot drinks, are the children doing that, or have you got an adult for the hot drinks?

So I have uh not told the adults, but I clearly have forced uh some adults to uh, you know, have a station each. Okay. Uh so my husband is going to have to organise the uh rehiding of eggs in the egg hunt.

Okay, yeah.

Uh and uh, you know, the my closer friend is going to have to deal with the coffee and thika. But she she doesn't know it yet, but she will know when she shows up.

Okay. Well that I think it's good to drop people in at the last minute. Exactly, it gives the last chance of saying no, you're absolutely right, yeah. And um and all the children are gonna help you tidy away at the end, hopefully? They are.

We have uh I've I got two lovely girls in the class that said I don't really want to do any of the social stuff. And I'm like, Great, you're in charge of cleaning. And they went, yeah, we can do that.

Oh, that's great. Um and the reason you're having it in the village hall instead of the school, is that just because it's on a Sunday and the school's not open, or is then uh do you not have the right amount of space at your school?

Uh we don't have the right amount of space in school, and school we're not allowed access to the school on the weekends.

Okay, yeah.

That's fair enough. And this hall is is perfect because it's got the outdoor area and the kitchen and everything.

So and it's free. Yes, that's brilliant. Yeah, you don't have to pay. All right. So so at the end of the event, you're gonna, I guess, have all the cash to look after. And then the channel is.

So we we use Yeah, we use mobile, we we call it Swish. You have something similar with Q you read off a QR code.

Oh yes, so we well I think there's various systems, but the one that we use in my PTA is called Sum Up. Um, and yes, you can use QR um codes to pay for stuff. Yeah. Oh, so is it is it cashless?

It should be, but we all we we all know that we cater for you know grandma and grandpas here, so we are going to we we're we're short on change basically. So we're we're gonna have to see it. We'll take years ago.

Okay.

So Swedish people are really good, you know, when it comes to because we we don't do a lot of cash, yeah. Because some of the older generation does. They normally give their swish to maybe a random Swede who then pay for them electronically. It usually works out when it comes to this sort of events.

Yeah. Oh, and I forgot to ask you how much are you charging for your cake and drinks?

So um the children wanted to have different prices on different cakes, um, but I managed to get them out of that. So 30 crowns for you know a bat beverage and a uh a cake of your choice.

Oh, okay, okay. Oh, that's quite nice. So it's an it's an all-in-one price. That keeps it easy, doesn't it?

Um, and there's always going to be someone who comes and says, I just want coffee, and I can see the confusion already on children's faces. Um so then we're just gonna have to deal with it as it comes.

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm not going to be responsible for a station. I shall just be, you know, hovering. Yes. Uh sorting out problems, yeah.

That's what I do when we have a summer fate. Um, I never allocate myself to a station. I'm always the one running around making sure everyone else is okay and bringing things. I mean, we have a lot more than four stalls normally, so um I'm the one that is responsible for like, you know, taking drinks to the people behind the stalls, or if they've running out of change, I can go and get some more. I think it's really handy to have someone that's not tethered to a spot so that you can help and yeah, like you say, sort out any problems. I did put myself on a stall once, I'm never going to do it again. The thing is, I really like being on a stall. I really like having that interaction with the children and helping them play the game or whatever it is I was doing, but it did mean that I didn't have a clue what was going on in the rest of the fate, and it for me it was really stressful because I didn't know if everything else was okay or not. So unfortunately, I think when I've stepped back as chair and I can just volunteer to help out, that'll be the time when I'll just be on a stall, I think. But yeah, as the organiser, it's it just wasn't a good idea. I'm glad that I tried it so that I now know it wasn't a good idea. But I think you're doing the right thing there. That's good. Uh so okay, so how you so where is all the money going then? If people are paying by card, where are they paying it into?

My account. Into your account. There is no account. The school doesn't have an account. Yeah. So they're just gonna have to trust me. Um but I do this every summer event as well. It always goes into my account and then I have to find some poor teacher to hand it over to.

Um But then if you're booking, are you booking the event and everything?

The actual school trip?

Yeah. Or yeah, the actual trip to the swimming pool. Are you booking that?

Well well uh I don't know. Speaking from experience, probably.

Okay.

But it would be lovely if someone else would like to do it.

Yeah.

Um but we we will see. I mean um yeah, I mean the other parents are gonna have to step up on this, um, the actual school trip because it's a safety thing as well.

Yeah, and hopefully they will have seen all the hard work you put into actually raising the money, and then it would be so terrible if you couldn't go because they didn't volunteer to come along. Oh my goodness. That would be so awful. Yeah.

But you know it's always those go-to parents that you are friends with that don't really want to, but you can force them. Yes. So that that would be uh the backup plan here. Plan B. Okay. To just force them to go. So then we're enough parents to do anyway. But um, yeah, no, it would be a shame. Because I think it's important for the children to see that their parents are also, you know, taking part or um, yeah.

I think it it's really good role modelling for a child to see that someone else is willing to help and a grown-up is willing to help. I th I I really think that's true. Um, so when you go to the swimming pool, are they are you is the money just covering the cost of doing the swimming or are you is it gonna cover cover um like a snack afterwards or anything like that?

It should cover a cooked meal, uh like a lunch. Okay. Um because they're gonna need that if you're staying all day.

Yeah. Oh, so it's an all-day thing, is it? Not just a couple of hours. Oh wow, okay.

And then we're probably gonna take them out and then they can stay. Yeah. Because the entrance fee is not per hour, you can stay as long as you like.

So it presumably it's a big swimming pool with with slides and things like that, is it? Not just a rectangular swimming pool.

No, no, no. It's like an adventure one that they want to go to. Brilliant.

Oh, they're gonna love it. And do you know when they're going? When do they want to?

They have to go in June.

Okay.

Like first or second week of June before the school's out.

Oh yes, of course, because you break up a lot earlier than us, don't you?

Yeah, I think we break off around the 8th, something like that.

Oh, okay. So it is the end of year thing.

Yes. Yeah. It's like the last hooray, because next year, you know, the older children, at least in that group, is changing schools.

Yeah, yeah. So before your daughter was in this older class, um, as she was going through the school, did other parents of the older children organize this every year? Or is this No, they didn't. So so the children going through the school have never kind of thought, oh great, when I get to year six or whatever it was, I I'm gonna get to go on one of these. It's not a tradition that they that each um sort of cohort of parents of like the older children organize it.

It is, but so so they they have been able to go on on trips pre-COVID. COVID messed up the whole system. Yeah. But pre-COVID, the money that was raised uh during the summer uh FICA, yeah, the summer sort of coffee time. I used to bring in a lottery and sell 300 tickets with donating sort of prices, which meant that they also got about 300 extra pounds from from just the ticket sales.

Yeah.

And then they added that with the with the sales of the coffees minus the receipts that in. Uh and they used the that money to sort of go to uh maybe one of the fun fairs or you know, they they went somewhere. But then COVID came in and they haven't really picked up since then.

Yeah.

You know.

So so what I'm hearing from what you're saying, Amelia, is that you've always seemed to have been involved in this. Even when you didn't have a child, he was old enough. That is correct.

Because, you know, I always think that, you know, it will be my children's turn at some point. Yeah.

Um but very interesting. I mean, I I guess it kind of although a lot of PTA volunteers listening to you saying that it will really ring home because sometimes you do feel like you're the only one who has the drive and the motivation to do something. And it and it might not be benefiting your child specifically, but you still you can see the value in doing it for other children and you know, you know, the pleasure they will get out of it, and that kind of drives you forward to do it, doesn't it? Even if nobody else will help or will think of it or wants to help you.

Yeah, but it also shows your children that you know you can help others without expecting anything back. It's okay to do that. Um so I've also done some of the uh disco and things like little parties for the children in the village hall raising money for the um uh the the the people that own the hall.

Okay, yeah.

Um but that's only been because of the because of the children, because they they need something to do. I think it's important.

Yeah, yeah.

When I went to school, the the the older children used to have one disco a month. You know, that's how that's how we raise money as well for our um for our school trips. Um so but that just that doesn't seem to happen now because it I think there's a lack of parents that want to volunteer. You're so busy with your life, you're so busy with work and children and everything, and and a lot of the responsibility is sort of put on the school, the school should do it, and then when it comes to things where children like parents have to step in, I think a lot of parents are also scared that they you know their ideas are not good enough or they don't really know how to do it. Um so yeah, I think I think it's a tricky one.

Yeah, and we have we have exactly the same problem here that I think you know our adult lives are so busy with work and l family life and all the things you've got to do in your own life, and then trying to find time to be a volunteer, you know, basically giving away your time for somebody else, because that's kind of what you know what it is, what it means to be a volunteer. um is is quite a hard thing to ask people who are already feeling overwhelmed with what they've already you know, with the their sort of normal everyday lives. Um and I know a lot of PTAs over here are struggle to get volunteers. Um and when you have volunteers on your team, sometimes you sh can struggle to get them. Even the ones that want to help can sometimes struggle to find the time, you know, to do what they decided they wanted to do in the first place. And um it is really hard and it's quite demoralising when you're the person at the top trying to motivate everybody else and you don't want to let anyone down because you're, you know, the chair at the top and um it is hard to motivate other people um but you know I always think if everybody just did a little bit it takes the pressure off lots of people or just a few people doing a lot and it and I'm sure people would feel good having done a bit volunteering. I don't I don't ever think there's anything bad can come out of volunteering really and giving a bit of your time away. But obviously that's just me.

Not everyone's like me I can't clone myself which is always frustrating but I I think it's important to sort of have um well you need to all well I always I always look at sort of you know how how is the family going to handle it um if they're going to give their time that's one thing but if they're going to buy things you know how is that gonna work you and always be respectful of not forcing people into things they don't want to do or feel comfortable with a lot of the parents wouldn't want to you know stand at the stall and and being responsible and being sort of interacting with the crowd either. So you you you have to find so so doing doing this for example this is the thing you I can only do it if I go in with the mindset of I will have to do it myself.

Yeah.

And and any help will just be a plus. Yeah and I suppose you don't know where it's going to lead and if other parents come with their children and they see what you've organised it might just plant a seed for next time if you ever do it again that they might next time think actually it was really good and I want to help or I want to support Amelia or you just don't know do you sometimes people have to see it with their own eyes and then think oh I think I could do that next time yeah and I think you just have to be a little bit sort of you just have to be that the the I I'm doing this and if you want to help great if you don't want to help that's also great your child will still get to go on the trip. Yeah I don't I mean to be fair you know between us having if all 19 children and parents showed up wanting to help I think that would be harder to manage than you know.

But that is a that is a better situation to be in even though it's harder it is a better situation. That's great. Oh thanks Amelia thank you so much for um taking the time to chat with me on the PTA podcast and it's been so interesting to hear about all your Easter plans and um especially that fishing game I really want to try that um at my school I really think it's funny. Because we often have hook a duck do you have that in Sweden? Have you seen that?

Uh yeah I've seen it in the UK. Yeah we we don't know.

So I think it would be a really nice alternative to hook a duck just uh just for anyone listening. But yeah it was also really interesting to hear obviously that you don't really have PTAs in Swedish schools and if you want to raise money it's down to you know a parent like yourself taking taking a leap forward and saying well I'm gonna do something and if someone wants to help me they can but you know that's it's really interesting to hear about all the differences. So thanks so much for explaining it all to me and uh very welcome I wish you lots of luck.

The only thing that could that could kind of make it um you know harder on Sunday is that right now outside my window it is massive snowfall going on.

Oh really um and it's gonna be interesting finding the eggs in the snow so we shall see yes we um yeah well yeah an Easter egg hunt in the snow I don't know how that's gonna work that they're gonna give them spades they'll have to dig for treasure maybe you could do something like that it's gonna be fine it's gonna be great I think the snow will just add to the atmosphere I'm sure it will. Yes yes well thank you very much for having me on for update you on uh the progress yes do let me know how it goes and yes as I say good luck so it's this coming Sunday is it it is it's not tomorrow is it 24th 24th okay yeah okay great well thank you so much lovely to speak to you thank you I really loved chatting to Amelia about what she's getting up to over there in Sweden and it was so interesting wasn't it to hear of a few parallels um especially with her trying to get volunteers to help out at the children's fundraiser it did give me a little chuckle to hear that the the case of getting volunteers seems to be the same everywhere across the world but I I did really love her approach of getting the children centralized in their fundraising activity to really take responsibility for a fundraiser that was going to benefit all of them directly. I'm not sure if I would be able to take the same approach here because obviously she had quite a small group of children of 19 which is great but obviously you can't really do that across a whole school but I really thought it was a great idea the way that she really made them the centre of it and showed them how they could take that responsibility and basically supported them in taking that responsibility as well. I'm gonna try and speak to Millie again after her event has happened to see how it all went and whether those parents managed to donate the cakes that their children volunteered them to donate. That's gonna be very interesting so let's hope the cakes did arrive because that was quite central to her plan wasn't it and I do hope it was a success. Anyway thank you so much for listening to my episode this week it was great to share it with you. Please do leave me a review and a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts and feel free to drop me an email and let me know how you are getting on with your fundraising it's hello at PTApodcast dot com. I look forward to chatting with you next time bye for now