Easter fundraising part 2

Automatically generated from the audio, so it may not be perfectly word-for-word.

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 budgets, 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. This is now episode 16, and I'm recording this just after the Easter holidays in the UK, so we're just about to start term 5, which is the first of our two summer terms in the UK. Um I have to say that the weather has not been showing us that it's summer. The weather has been quite atrocious. In fact, since Christmas, we have had so much rain. I don't know if it's the same wherever you are in the UK or across the world, but where I live, there has been so much rain. I think there has probably been rain every day since Christmas time, and um we're just all a bit sick of it now, and we'd really like a bit of sunshine. We did have quite a nice weekend. Um the sun did shine at the weekend and it was a bit warmer, so we had a tantalising glimpse of summer, which was actually really lovely and a great way to end the Easter holidays for the children. So I just hope that uh some better weather, some drier weather is on its way for term five. So I just really wanted to touch base with you about my Easter fundraising, and I have also um spoken to Amelia about how her Easter fundraising went. If you have listened to episode 15, you will know that she organised um an Easter Fund Day for her village to raise money for the um year, I suppose, year fives and sixes, who were just about to leave primary school in Sweden. Um, they needed to raise some money to fund their trip to a local adventure swimming pool because they do not have PTAs in Swedish schools, which was quite a revelation to me when I found out about that. Anyway, you can listen to everything that Amelia had to say about that in episode 15, including what her plans were for the Easter Fun day. So I managed to catch up with her after the event just to find out how it all went, which I always think is a really interesting discussion when somebody has made plans and then you have a chat with them afterwards to see how it went, whether there's anything they would change, what worked and what didn't. So, towards the end of this episode, um you can hear my catch-up with Amelia. But before that, I just wanted to catch up with you about my Easter fundraising. So um I organised or my PTA organised um a little Easter egg hunt for the children, and we had a non-uniform day on the last day of term, which was our crazy hair day, which is always really popular, and we raised £68 for the Crazy Hair Day, which was pretty good. And for the Easter egg hunt, I don't actually have the final figures with me at the moment, but I think we raised about £70 from running the Easter egg hunt, which um, yes, it's a very small amount, but it's kind of what I was expecting to be honest. Um, I think I did talk in the last episode about how difficult it was to source all the Easter eggs, uh, and they're a lot more expensive now, so I wasn't expecting a huge amount of profit. The Easter egg hunt really is just a fun thing for the kids, and if we can make a tiny amount of money on the side, then that's you know always a bonus, so we just kind of went for that approach this time. So, the actual Easter egg hunt, the way it worked um this year was that we labelled all of the Easter eggs with raffle tickets, and then the children had to collect um a small plastic egg which would have a corresponding raffle ticket inside. So, part of the excitement for the children was that they didn't know which Easter egg they had won. Um, we bought a variety of Easter eggs. I think we went for mini eggs, but but Cadbury's buttons. Uh gosh, I can't remember now. Anyway, a couple of extra ones, all the same size and just a little variety, and for the children who weren't able to have normal chocolate or um had allergies, we sourced some free farm eggs, which were gosh a lot more expensive. I didn't realise how much more expensive those were than the other eggs. So on the day of the Easter egg hunt, the um teachers organised a little treasure hunt round the school for the children to do because it was the last day of term, so they always do some sort of activity like that on the last day of term. And once they'd solved all the puzzles, they then unearthed um a box of mini plastic eggs so they could each take one of the plastic eggs and then come into the hall where we had laid out the table of Easter eggs, and then they would find the Easter egg that matched their raffle ticket in their little plastic egg. It sounds so simple, it sounds so straightforward, and yet it never is straightforward, and I just don't understand why. This is never straightforward. So basically, what happened is yes, the children brought in their Easter eggs, yes, we checked the raffle tickets, and it was all going fine, we're matching the tickets on the boxes, and then towards the end, when sort of the final trickle of children came through, their tickets were not matching the eggs on the table. Uh, we just couldn't match the numbers up, which obviously meant that earlier in the afternoon, obviously somebody had mismatched a raffle ticket with a raffle ticket on an egg. Um, and it wasn't really a problem, it just was confusing why that had happened. I just don't know how it happened. I mean, I was standing behind that table with a teacher, two adults, and we had obviously mismatched the numbers somehow. I just don't know how this happened. There was also a little problem in that we had um six children who had ordered a free-from egg, and unfortunately, I made an error which I feel really terrible about, that I misunderstood the information that school sent me about how many children actually needed a free-from egg. So we had a situation where um when we asked for the information um w when parents bought the ticket, we did say, Does your child require free-from egg? And then the way this the school system works is there's a little box where you can type notes in, and some people had typed in specific allergies that their children had, um, and some people had typed in a couple of things that for some reason I just found really confusing. I just found it really confusing. So somebody had typed uh not uh needs to be lactose-free, which all the free from eggs are, so that's absolutely fine. Somebody else had put, some other parent had put um can't have Nestlé chocolate, but can have Cabries chocolate. So apparently Cabri's chocolate was fine for that person. And then um there was somebody else who put that my child is vegetarian but she doesn't actually like sweets. Is there anything else we could do? So um, because of those conflicting um extra notes, I purchased a simple little Easter craft thing for the child who didn't actually like sweets because I felt that we should try and be accommodating, um, and I didn't want the child to go home empty-handed, so I got her a craft to do. So I thought I only needed to purchase five free from eggs to cater for the other dietary requirements. Uh, but unfortunately, it was actually six free from eggs that I needed to get. So when we were handing the eggs out to the children, there was one child who needed a free from egg, and there just wasn't a free from egg there, uh, which I couldn't understand for a really long time until I went back through my messages and emails, and then I realised I had made a mistake in interpreting the information school sent me, so I felt really terrible about that, um, especially for that child. But she was very understanding, luckily, and um we managed to get her something else to so she didn't go away um empty-handed. In the end, you managed to get her something else, so it was all okay, but the I just feel so annoyed when I make a mistake like that. I do not like making mistakes. I rarely make mistakes like that, but I with all the other information that I got about the non-Cabries, but Cameron Nestle's okay, it just got really confusing and I made an error. Luckily everyone was understanding, um, but I wish I wish it hadn't happened. I wish that I had maybe bought one extra free from egg just to be on the safe side. And if I was running the event again, I would do that. I would buy one, an extra one, just to be on the safe side. For my own peace of mind, if nothing else. Um, so that was the Easter egg hunt. The children loved it, they went home with an egg for Easter and they did little treasure hunts, that was fun, and I was glad that we were able to provide an egg for every child, so every child kind of got a gift from the PTA for Easter and away, because we, you know, as I said, we didn't really make much money on that. Um, but I just don't know why this Easter egg hunt causes us such a headache every year. There must be a better way of running it. I think if I was going to run another one uh next year, then I probably would dispense with doing the raffle ticket system and just have some eggs that the children could take, maybe just have the eggs all the same, and then nobody can complain that they've got a different egg. Um obviously we'd have free from eggs for those with allergies, but the sort of main bulk of the eggs we'd just get chocolate button eggs or something for everybody so that there was no wrangling and swapping and arguing over possibly, oh I want that one, but that's the last one. So yes, it was um slightly stressful, and I didn't really expect it to be. I thought it was going to be fine, and it wasn't. Uh, I did feel terrible afterwards for not having enough free-from eggs, especially because I asked everybody in advance. Uh made it very clear we were buying to order, etc. But anyway, it was okay in the end. So, yes, our Easter fundraising went really well, actually. You know, in summary, it was fine, everyone was happy. Um, and we've just had our Easter holiday, so I tend to try and take a break from all the PTA things over the Easter holiday. But we are back to school and we have actually um we're actually in the middle of a sponsored activity at the moment, so just before the Easter holiday, we launched a our sponsored fundraiser for this year. So each year we try and do one sponsored fundraiser, just one, because I feel that asking parents to sponsor more than once a year is a bit unfair, um, and so I feel that keeping it to just one in the year means people are more likely to take part and don't sort of get fed up with us asking for sponsorship. Um, the other reason is that sponsored activities uh we try and make a big splash about them. It takes a while to run them in a way you know you need to have a few weeks so that the children can do the activity and you can collect the sponsor money. Um so what we have done this year is we have a sponsored activity called Challenge 24, which is obviously linked to the year 2024, and we have challenged the children to come up with an with a with their own challenge. So, what's so great about this sponsored activity actually is that the children are in charge of what they choose to do, and so they can take ownership of it and they can take responsibility for choosing the activity and then completing the challenge. So basically, we've left it really open-ended, and we just said we want you to choose an activity relating to the number 24. So it could be something you could choose to do something every day for 24 days, you could choose to do something 24 times, you could choose to travel a distance of 24 kilometres or 2.4 kilometres if you're a nursery child, because that's otherwise quite far. Anything at all connected to that. So, for example, uh some uh so one child has decided to take a photo in nature every day for 24 days, so she will end up with 24 pictures of nature. Uh, another child has decided to ride her his bike to the park every day for 24 days. Um I can't quite remember what the other ones are, but that the children of Fantastic can always come up with some really ingenious ideas, which are always so much fun to hear about. And what we have done is we uh made a poster explaining it, and then on the back of that poster we put a pledge sheet for the children to write their pledge or their challenge on the back, and we put some stars on, we put 24 stars on for the children to colour in as like a tracker so they can fill it out and keep track of what they're doing, and then we set up a just giving page for the whole school, so everybody's sponsorship goes into one page, which I think is such a great idea because the total of sponsored money then goes up really quickly because everyone's kind of pooling their money. Um, a couple of years ago we did manage to register for gift aid, and the just giving page also collects gift aid for us, so that should be um quite a lot of extra money, I hope, because you get uh 25% of your donation gift aided. So I set up the page, and when you set up a just giving page, you have to put a um a target if you uh like a fundraising target on it. So I put a thousand pounds for that because um we have I think it's about 85 children in our school, and I kind of based um my target on well, if each child earns £10 of sponsorship, then we should hopefully get to a thousand or just just about um as like an average. Obviously, some children will earn more sponsorship than that, and some might not take part at all, which of course is fine, it's completely optional for everybody. Um, so hopefully, if when it all averages out, hopefully it will work out about a thousand pounds. I really, really hope it will. And uh if you're looking for a very easy uh fundraising activity, then this activity is very, very easy. Hardly any work to do from the PTA apart from uh publicising it and setting it all up and maybe sending a few reminders to parents while it's happening. Um, and it's a great talking point as well in the playground uh to see what everyone's getting up to. I I feel it also brings the school community together a bit, um, and part of the ethos of RPTA is to definitely bring the school community together, so it's definitely bringing the children into the forefront, and then they are in turn supported by the parents to complete their challenges, and so everybody is taking part, and I think that's a really lovely thing about this particular sponsorship activity. So, right now we are basically halfway through our challenge 24. We have set an end date for all the challenges to be completed, and one thing uh my PTA is working on at the moment is trying to decide on a treat or a reward for the children to say thank you to them for raising all the money because it's their hard work that has made all the sponsorship money come in. So, I would like to ask you if you have any ideas for me because normally I am ideas queen and I have ideas falling out of my head, but for some reason this time I am just really stuck for thinking about what we could do for the children that obviously does not cost a lot of money. Um, but a nice thing for them to say thank you. So the kind of activity I was thinking of is something that could happen in school time so that all the children can benefit from it. Um, and I was thinking of something along the lines of a special play time or oh gosh, something special happening at school in one afternoon that as I said does not cost a lot of money. So um if we're hoping to raise a thousand pounds from this sponsored activity, I certainly don't want to be paying out more than £100 really, um, because I think it would be uh a shame to lose the sponsorship money. Um, so I I mean I have thought of an entertainer or something, but I think that would um be too expensive. So I'm hoping to go for something really low cost. Somebody suggested a movie afternoon, which I kind of quite like that idea, and I thought maybe we could provide popcorn, um, which I don't think would be too expensive. But I just wondered if you had any ideas you could throw in my direction, I would be incredibly grateful. Uh for some reason I just my mind has just gone blank, um, and I'm I'm really struggling, and I want to advertise it to the children that they will get a treat at the end of their challenge because I think it might help to motivate some of them who perhaps are not taking part in the challenge. Um, if uh they heard that there's going to be a little reward, a little treat. So if you have any ideas, please please email me on hello at ptapodcast.com and I would love to gather some of your suggestions and um see if they would work up my school. So here's hoping you have some ideas for me. Thank you. From what she described in my last episode. So I hope you enjoy hearing about it. Hi Amelia, welcome back to the PTA podcast. I've been dying to hear how your Easter event went. So, how did it go?

It went very well, thank you. Did you have some good attendance? We did. Um we had a lot of younger children that came. Um it was very good. We had the um obviously the school children came and they helped and they did a really good job. They um sorted out the kitchen, they did all the dishes, they sorted out the ticket sales and the fishing, and they did really, really well actually.

Wow, that sounds great. So you had younger children from the same school coming on or from outside your school as well. Oh, that's great. Because I remember you said you put posters in some other villages. So did you get some people from outside coming in?

I think so. Um I didn't recognize everyone. I think it might have been some people. Okay.

Um did you have snow?

Yes, we did. Um it was Yes, we did. We did have snow. Um top of that. But it was okay, it was okay. It's it the um the outdoor egg hand went off. I mean we had rain winds. In the morning there was raining, and the day before it was fluid, and then on the actual day when the event had some heavy rain winds, and it was okay.

Okay, so it didn't impact the easy egg hand card because that was outside, wasn't it?

It was, yeah, only the poor person had people going in and out of the other way to do it. Was that a personal child? It was not um it was an adult. Yeah. Okay. Well that's like it.

So the Israel. Did that go according to your plans? Was there anything that went wrong? Or was there anything that you might change for next time with that one?

No, I think it went absolutely um according to plan. It was really funny because the um I actually, the boy that was checking that that they uh managed to get the right colour combinations of eggs was very, very um thorough. Okay. So um yeah, he sent the little ones back. No, it's the wrong colour. Um which was quite interesting um because then they uh they really had to find the right combinations.

Ah, so so you so it wasn't just a case of finding three eggs, they had to find three or however many particular colours was it?

Yeah, and there was colour combination of eggs, and I think it was like blue, pink, orange, yellow, or whatever, but it was the the eggs had one colour. Um, but then the older children they had colour combinations to find, so they had to find an apple, an apple egg that was yellow on top and orange at the bottom, but not the opposite.

So gosh, that's quite difficult because I mean obviously an egg is is different on the top and the bottom, but it's in a subtle way, I would say. Yes, especially for a small child.

They came back and didn't get a treat, they must lent out again.

Oh, that's good, because that actually makes the game last longer, doesn't it, though, which is quite quite helpful.

So I think we heard about 320 egg combinations outside. And um yeah, I think I only lost two. Oh, that's wow. Quite good, actually.

So you you might find those in the summer when the snow has melted, possibly.

Yeah, well, one was stepped on and the other one, a blue one has gone missing. So we'll see when it might be a child put it in the pocket, actually, they're quite cute. So yeah.

So you had plastic eggs, so you just took the top and bottom parts apart and then you swapped them around to be different colour combos. Yes. Yeah, oh that's that's a really good idea. Thank you for that idea. I'm gonna keep that in mind. Um, and your prize for the egg hunt was I think was it a bag of sweets, pick and mix sweets? Is that right?

It was, and uh so so I sent out a message uh obviously before this and asked for um some help with um diff various things, and um someone delivered about three about three and a half kilos of pick and mix. Wow. Uh but it just so happened that obviously that day I've already been to the shop and bought another four kilos, I think, of pick and mix, thinking that nobody was gonna, you know, donate. Um so yeah, we had a lot of sweets left over after the um the egg hunt.

Wow, okay. But at least you had enough for the egg hunt, which is quite important. Oh, yes, we did. Yes, yeah. That's good. Okay, so have you got did you manage to use up the leftover sweets somewhere or have you still got them at home? Are you hoarding them at home?

I'm not hoarding them. No, I'm not. Um I uh one of the dads works in a fairly large sort of factory type place. And uh so his daughter uh actually got rid of I think 200 bags. Wow. Which were the remaining of uh of the bags, yeah. So they they sold them all to um this plantation work, yeah. Which was brilliant, fantastic. Yeah, no, so nothing went um and and uh we had some we had some other bits and pieces left over, like some cakes and stuff, and one of the nurses took them into her work and sold those off. So I didn't hoard anything.

But that's very impressive, especially cake and sweets, because that would be hard to get rid of. It is, I think. Hard to say no to, that's what I mean. Hard to say no to. So when you said that the um the factory workers and the uh the nurse, when they they sold leftover cakes and sweets, did the money go back to you or did they have their own charity to give that money to?

Oh no, no, it all goes back to school. So it all goes back into to the collections, yeah.

Yeah, well that's really great. Okay, and then your other game was the fishing game that you explained to us, and how did that go?

It went alright. Um definitely had children who fished multiple times.

Which was what you thought might happen, wasn't it?

It was a thought, wasn't it? Yes. Um so they were obviously happy with the uh w whatever they fished out. So that was good. Yeah.

Um and then your your raffle was something that you weren't quite sure how you were going to organise it. So what did you decide on in the end with the prices and the tickets and everything?

So we did decide on having two rings and selling them and then drawing the prices at the end. Okay. Um I don't know, in hindsight, I don't know. I mean, we obviously sold a lot more fika uh cakes and coffees than we than we would have if we had prices straight away. Okay. So I'm a bit I'm on the fence on that one. Uh either way would work, I think.

So what's your hesitation with leaving the prices to the end?

I just feel like you know, you're forcing people to stay, you it's almost like you're forcing them to socialise even though they don't want to. Um it would I mean it worked out. They were they took it as, you know, all the children were playing together, they were having fun, and sort of parents got to talk and have coffee. So I don't think it was anything bad. Um, but I think it could have easily worked the other way as well. Yeah.

So is that just do you feel uncomfortable, slightly uncomfortable about it, perhaps because it's not a usual thing to do at a Swedish event?

The thing is, it it is quite usual to do it when it comes to certain celebrations that you do anyway, like midsummer celebrations or when you know that people are staying around, but you always get that feeling of um now I have to stay because I bought raffle tickets. Okay. Uh that's just we just as sweets we just gotta get over it. That's just how it is. Yeah. Um no, I think I don't think anyone I don't think that there was people who didn't buy tickets because there was a call-out at the end. But um I don't know, it's hard to tell.

Yeah. So did you separate the prizes into adults' versus children's prizes or did you lump them all together?

I lumped them all together, and what we did was that we had two rings uh with with the same numbers but in different colours. Okay. So the children then had to, I think we we took 30 prizes or something, and the children then had to take just one colour. Okay. Um, and call out that number, and then if you had a a pink or a blue one, it was fine. Okay, okay. So to speak. Yeah. Um, and that was good for the children. They were uh mortified having to um call out numbers on a microphone because it was quite fun. It's fun watching them.

Um fun watching them be really uncomfortable.

Yes, no, but they learned and they grew, and I think it was a brilliant sort of um thing. So what happened was whoever got the first number obviously got to take something from the table first. Okay. And that way I didn't need to separate them out, then they're just taking wherever they want. Yeah.

Okay, so the first person went up, chose their prize, did and then did they um pull out the next ticket? Did you do it like that, or did you have the children who were kind of organizing it, pulling out the ticket?

No, I had the yeah, I had the children who were in charge of the ticket station. Okay. Um, having to do that. Yeah.

Yeah. Great. And did um were the pip were the people happy with their prizes from your basement?

They they were very happy with the basement prices. Yes.

Um and uh yeah, I've got a lot more space now. Yeah, I was gonna ask you how your basement was looking after after that. It is, yeah. Space for more things for the next time.

I reckon I could do another 30 uh tickets without a problem. Oh really? Yeah.

It's getting there.

It's getting there. Oh, that's good. And then you had uh coffee and cakes, didn't you? So I remember you um I remember that you asked the children to volunteer to bring cakes, um, and you were gonna sort of just leave it to chance whether that happened. So, what did happen in the end with that?

It worked out beautifully. We had a very nice spread of various cakes. I don't think anyone made the same kind of cake. Okay, that's good. Um, yeah, no, it was really, really good, actually. I was surprised. Um the children, they yeah, they came. Basically, their their parents just dropped them off, they didn't even come inside, they just dropped them off with the cakes and went. That's brilliant. Okay. Um yeah, so we did a lot and lots of coffees and cakes. Lots.

That's really good.

Yeah.

And did any parents approach you to give you a receipt for their expenses?

They did not. Well most parents didn't really attend at all.

Oh dear, that's a bit of a shame though, because who's gonna drink all the coffee?

I know. Um but the the children did show up. I think uh all children except three or four, I think, were actually there. Okay, and uh yeah, they did really, really well.

And then cleaning up afterwards, I think you said that you had a like a clear-up team who didn't want to be involved in any of the stalls, so they volunteered to do the cleaning. So how was that? Well we all cleaned.

Okay, team efforts. Team effort, definitely team effort. And then as soon as we started, you know, with the vacuum and stuff, I sent all the children home. Oh, okay. Um, after they had to go and collect all the eggs. Oh 300 or something. Yeah, 320. And then count them, divide them up to colour, making sure I've got all the eggs back. Oh, they were quite busy doing that while we cleaned up the actual hall.

Gosh, yes, that must have taken them quite a long time. Goodness me. And so, how much do you think you raised from the event?

So, on the actual event, we did about 530 pounds.

Wow, that's fantastic! Yeah, and then thank you.

And then with the extra cakes and coffees, there was a few more tenors uh with the sweets that came in afterwards.

Yeah, oh, brilliant bonus money there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. And and so how is how far has that gone to uh reaching the target that you were looking at with the various options for the swimming pool trip?

Well, they are way past their targets on on both. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, which is now causing issues because now they don't know where they want to go around it. It's too many options.

So they don't have any budgetary constraints, and all options are on the table. Oh, that's tricky. So, how so what you're gonna do next? How are you gonna resolve that?

I don't know. See, here's the beauty. I feel like I've kind of done the part of raising the money. Okay. Um but now the children have to set a date with school and have to be parents volunteer. Volunteer to sort of drive them to where they're going. Okay. Okay.

So you're leaving that with the school, are you?

Yeah. Well, I know that's not going to work, but I'm thinking I'll uh I'll give them the option. Because what's gonna happen is that my child is gonna come home and say, right, we we've set a date. You know, it's in like four days or something, because that's how it's gonna go. Yeah. And then she's gonna expect me to take time off work uh and her dad to take time off work and drag all these children and watch them swim. Yeah. So I'm kind of expecting it. I know it's gonna be sometime in June. Okay. Yeah, beginning of June. Um but we'll see. Um hopefully some other parents can actually step up a little bit and do it.

That would be good, because you've done so much hard work yourself.

But I did have, I mean, I I had um sort of, you know, three or okay, three. Three, I had three parents uh and and who was very helpful on the day. Yeah. Very helpful. So um, yeah, without them it would have been a little bit harder to organize all the minions instead of asking what they were gonna do. So they all each got a working team to deal with, and then um yeah. Now I'm very proud of the children actually. They had to work really hard.

Yeah, but I I bet they came away with a great sense of achievement, especially after you'd you know, when you revealed how much you raised, I bet they were so proud of themselves.

Yeah, yeah, no, they're very happy. And so now we just have to pull the trip off and then yay.

Yeah, wow, what a great thing for them to look forward to. Um so did they get any sort of recognition at the school for taking part in your fundraiser?

Um I'm not sure. They were very excited, and um the teacher was very uh impressed um with them. So I guess, yeah, I guess so.

Oh, that's fantastic. And do you have any more plans for any more fundraising for your school?

I do not. I've got another two years now until my son is old enough to do all this again. Um yay! So um no, I d I don't think there's anything that they want to do right now. I think well, obviously No, the next one actually is the raffle, which I do every summer. So the next time is gonna be what beginning of June. There'll be a raffle when they when they finish school.

Okay. And is that to raise money for the school or is that just a bit of fun for the kids?

It's extra fun for school. So they use it for movie nights or um I don't know what they use them for. So just extra fun stuff. Extra fun stuff, yeah.

Yeah.

So that normally brings in something like 300 quid or something that they just use for extra fun stuff.

Yeah. Oh, that's really great. So uh so you've got two years to build up your present haul before it's uh raffle time again at Easter time. I'll try and help you as much as I can.

Thank you, it's much appreciated. Um yeah, no, it's just it's it's fun to sort of you know think about it during the year and just collect bits and pieces because if you have to buy everything there and then it gets very expensive and your profit obviously baseline.

So that's right, yeah. So overall, in two years' time, do you think you will run the same event again, or do you think you're gonna change it slightly?

Um, I'm not sure. I'm hoping that uh they have a little bit, they give you a little bit more time because this was very short notice that they wanted to go on the trip and find some time to do money, you know, some sort of fundraising. Because you could also do it um, you know, at some other but Easter is good because Easter people people don't really tend to go away over Easter, there's not really fun events. Uh you could obviously have a Halloween thing, or you know, you don't really want to do a Christmas thing because well, people are not really home at Christmas, and yeah, or if you know. So Easter is quite good. So I might, I might, but um we'll we shall see. Yeah, and because as long as I don't have to buy the cookies, it's it's that I don't want to buy any cookies.

Um I think probably the rest of your community is also grateful to you, so they also don't have to buy any cookies. Oh, oh thanks, Amelia. Thank you so much for um coming back and giving an overview of your event. It's always so interesting to hear, you know, what people's plans are and then how it actually went in the end and you know whether you would change it slightly for next time. But it it sounds like you did a fantastic job, and especially with all your child helpers, I'm so glad that went well and and they were able to do everything they wanted to, and um and you raised all the money you needed in one event. So that's really fantastic.

Yeah, yeah, no, um I'm very proud of the children. They um yeah, they did an awesome job because they had to package everything, they had to do, you know, the sweetie bags, they had to bake, they had to, yeah. No, I think um they did really well, and they also, you know, learned the lesson that things are not just free, they don't just come to you, you have to do something, you know.

Yeah, so um and for some of the children involved, it could have been the first time they actually volunteered to to do something.

Yeah.

Perhaps, yeah. So um, and it sounds like they will all have had a great experience as well because there were a lot of them volunteering, which is which you know speaks to a great team effort. So uh yeah, congratulations.

Yay, yay!

And there we have it. It sounds like Amelia had a huge success with her Easter fundraising, and I just love the fact that she got the children so involved in everything. I bet they came away with a tremendous sense of achievement, raising all that money so they could enjoy their special end-of-term retreat. I just wanted to clarify something that Amelia said about her raffle tickets. I think the way the system works in Sweden is that they don't write um the name of the purchaser of the ticket on the second half of the ticket stub. Um, I know that over here we do, certainly at my school, we always make a note of who's bought which raffle ticket so that when we draw the raffle at the end of the event, if somebody has gone home, they can still claim their prize. But I think it's different with um Amelia's system, so that's perhaps why she was talking about people feeling like they had to stay till the end to get their prize. But I personally think it's fine to encourage people to stay at an event, and I'm sure that those people didn't feel it was a hardship at all because they could enjoy the uh the other activities, but I guess if it's not something people normally do, it might feel a bit strange or it might feel like you have um coerced somebody into doing something that they don't want to, but I'm I'm sure that um that Amelia's guest didn't didn't feel like that at all. So uh thank you so much for listening to this podcast episode. I would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions to help me out, please help me out with uh thinking up what kind of treat we could offer the children at my school for completing their challenges. And if you wanted to let me know how your Easter fundraising went, I would love to read about that. So why don't you drop me an email? It's hello at ptapodcast.com. And if you enjoy listening to my podcast, have you thought about leaving me a rating or a review wherever you listen to the podcast? If you do, that'll be great as it really helps other people find my podcast who may like to listen. So I'd really appreciate it if you could do something like that. And that's the end of my episode this time. So thank you so much for listening. I've really enjoyed chatting with you and I'll catch you in my next episode. Bye for now.