The sun is shining, it’s very cold (last night dipped below freezing) and today I was missing our cosy underground Swiss shared garage. I was spraying the screen with de-icer and my hands were turning to blocks of ice in the process. I should be feeling good on account of the sun shining and all the great work we have done recently, but I reckon we are suffering from a condition I would coin ‘donation fatigue’.
Relatively new to being back in schools in the UK, I started to whole heartedly get involved with charitable giving through the girls primary school, whether it be for the PTA (parent-teacher association) or for external charities. When the first sponsored event came along a few weeks into September, I was not phased, so we duly roped a few family members in to contribute to the Maths challenge at school for the NSPCC. It was educational, the girls had to answer as many of their set math questions as accurately as they could. 20 GBP raised.
I take all of Alices old summer clothes to Cancer research in Wokingham. ? ? GBP raised!
Next is the appeal for cakes to sell on behalf of the PTA at the school disco to raise money. Cakes made, but found out that my 15 cakes although all sold (probably due to the rather bright sprinkles that adorned their tops) were only sold for 20p each. I think someone does not realize that a pack of butter now costs 1.30 GBP alone. 3 GBP raised.
Next came Poppy appeal, we take our money in and the girls come back happy with their poppies. 70p raised.
Next came Children in Need, bring in your Teddy Bear and a donation. Both girls managed to forget their teddies on that morning, so we did not donate on this occasion. 0 GBP raised.
Next comes the Christmas raffle tickets for the PTA Christmas Fayre, we bought 5 tickets, 5GBP raised.
Then we have non-uniform day, an excellent way of getting tombola gifts donated for the PTA Christmas Fayre. Come in non-uniform in exchange for the gift. I tell another mum a week back that I have been really organized and got my tombola gifts whilst there are half price offers in Morrisons. I buy something that I would not mind winning myself, a big tin of Quality Street and a tin of cheese biscuits from Jacobs. The reply was, ‘ahhh….you obviously have not understood about the tombola…. Last year I spent 20 GBP and in return got a box of stock cubes, a value tin of beans and a half drunk bottle of wine….. what? A half drunk bottle of wine? It is surely better to donate nothing than donate something that should have been tipped down the sink…?! A similar story from another school where they managed to collect in a few packets of out of date biscuits, and….yes you’ve guessed it, a half drunk bottle of wine.
OK, that’s 10 GBP donated in prizes.
It is double donation day, as they need more cakes for the PTA. Well thinking about the pricing last time, I donate something that was quick to make, and easy to transport. Thought everyone would give cupcakes, which are my usual specialty, but decided not to spend hours on fancy decs if they are selling for 20p a cake. Make millionaires shortbread. 4 GBP donated in a cake costs. Stick a label on the cakes saying , ‘please do not undercharge, these cost 15p a slice to make’. Hopefully someone will get the idea of how high they need to go on the price. It’s a little demoralizing to put in the time and not really get any more money than the cost of what it was to make back. You can’t even get a value uniced cupcake in a shop for less than 20p…..!
Next week, I need to provide some savoury food, but think this will be minimal, as it happens about 2 hours after they have had their Xmas dinner at school. It is for Year 3 Christmas party, then it's Year 6s turn a few days later, some food required for that too…..
This week was hunting through my packing boxes, and came across some printer cartridges, looked them up under http://www.eachonecounts.co.uk/
Found that my old HP cartridges could have value for our nominated charity, Guide Dogs. This one was satisfying because these were things I thought I had thrown out in Switzerland, and was quite surprised to see them lying in the bottom of the box, plus they could have a new lease of life and be worth something!
Buckets will be rattled at the end of the Year 3 Christmas play next week, money will be collected for The Rainbow Trust http://www.rainbowtrust.org.uk/.
Buckets will be rattled again at the end of our Christmas concert, to raise money for the Mayors’ Charity in Wokingham.
There seems to be so many charities all vying for funds here in the UK. Not a week goes by here in the UK without a prepacked bag dropping through the door asking for clothing for charity. It was a lot less pressurized in Switzerland, perhaps they get more state support, I am not sure, but we were only ever asked every year by local school children to buy a 5CHF badge/chocolatecoin for Pro Patria : http://www.propatria.ch/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=10&sobi2Id=1152&Itemid=80 and support the Surbaum Treff where classes took it in turns to do a BBQ twice a year to raise funds for the Klasse kasse (The class money pot). We had a few clothing sacks to fill for ESB (local charity, clothes recycling). Apart from that, we were never asked for that much for charitable giving.
I now quake in anticipation as to what is in store for the Spring and Summer, and thanks, Veronica, for telling me it will get worse when Laura hits secondary school! Don’t get me wrong, I love supporting my named charities, especially Salvation Army at Christmas and Cancer Research, but you can only give so much, and this last 3 months, I have definitely started to feel a little fatigued, the last 3 months have been expensive…….
No comments:
Post a Comment