by Lance on April 5, 2011
Want a Successful School Event? Choose Tyvek Wristbands
You’re not sure what your classroom budget is going to be this year, but you are sure it won’t be enough. As you look out over the faces of your young students sounding out words and carefully calculating math problems, you wish you could give them something more to reinforce their education. Whether you want to raise the money for extra books, school supplies or creative materials, holding a fundraising event using custom printed wristbands can be key to bringing cash into your classroom.
A School Carnival
Paper bracelets or Tyvek Wristbands go hand in hand with your fundraising plans, especially if you’re planning a school carnival. A carnival is a traditional choice for a school fundraiser. It is the type of event that opens the doors of the school to the community. Individuals get to see the cause they are donating to, and faculty and students get a chance to show off their place of learning to the public. As an added bonus, school carnivals are just plain fun!
Security and Safety
Making sure that an event on school grounds is secure and safe should be a top priority of any planning committee. Tyvek wristbands can help you reach this goal. Somewhere between paper and plastic, these wristbands fit snugly around your attendees wrists. They cannot be transferred or removed without being cut off, so you can rest assured that the right folks are at your event.
Event wristbands are available in several colors. You can set aside ones for faculty and staff, parents, students and friends of the school. When individuals see the colored wristbands, they can easily identify the type of relationship an individual has to the school.
Raffles
Your school carnival will likely have games, food, student performances and displays. Another big draw might be door prizes or raffles, based on wristband numbering. In order to save additional money, you may want to solicit a local vendor or merchant sponsor the event by donating a prize. Prizes can be big or small. What counts is the spirit behind them and the enthusiasm with which your attendees participate.
Because event wristbands can be securely numbered, they can serve a dual purpose at your event. They will help to keep your event secure, but they will also double as a raffle ticket. Each guest with an event wristband gets a chance at the prize. And, they won’t run the risk of losing their chance at the raffle.
Guests can feel safe participating in carnival games and rides. The Tyvek wristbands will stay securely around their wrists no matter how many rounds of skee ball they play. They can even take a few rounds in the dunk tank because these event wristbands are waterproof!
Your Students are Worth It
It’s easy and cost effective to design and print custom wristbands. Event wristbands can be customized with your school’s logo making them unique and memorable. Not only will members of your school’s community have a fun time, you’ll be earning money so that you can buy the much needed extras the budget may not cover this year.
by Lance on March 14, 2011
Stickers for Kids: Fun for the Young
When you host your next big event, don’t forget your younger attendees. Whether you’ve booked teen sensation Justin Bieber, plan on screening the newest Twilight movie, or are hosting a local battle of the bands, your tween and teen guests may be among the most enthusiastic and important in the crowd. Win their loyalty, and you’ll have a core group of potential attendees to promote to as they grow.
Whether they bring home a coveted T-shirt or poster or hold onto concert wristbands as keepsakes, many kids and teens like to have something physical that they can show off to friends and family that proves they’ve been there and done that! Young people love to collect. It pays to help them in their efforts.
Custom printed stickers are a great option when you are catering to the younger set. Whether they end up decorating the base of a teen’s skateboard decks or the stickers get tucked away neatly into a memory book next to tickets and photos of the big event, custom stickers are doing their job long after the day is over. Your logo goes with your tween and teen audience, creating a brand recognition and affinity that was definitely worth the cost of printing.
Vinyl stickers are durable, waterproof, and fade resistant, so they will stand up to a little showing off. Whether event stickers get passed around as part of a story told between friends or find space on a notebook cover or folder, you will want them to last so that the memory of the event lasts with it.
In order to ensure that coveted place somewhere amidst your teen fans’ paraphernalia, you will want to choose a design that is attractive to them. You can create custom stickers that include the logo of your organization, the event itself, or create stickers for individual performers. Make sure each sticker includes a web address as well, so guests can find out more information about the organization, event or bands after the show.
Having a number of different custom printed stickers available at a particular event can also provide some distraction for your teen guests. Interested in having one of each to grace their albums, your younger guests can make a game of collecting all of the custom stickers available at your concert or festival. If money is an issue, you can even choose inexpensive economy stickers, so you get more stickers for less money.
Teenagers can be the most vocal and fervent of all your attendees. With a little buzz and some smart promotional work, invested teens can raise the level of excitement surrounding any event and its performers. Anyone who has heard the words “Bieber Fever” or “Twi-hard” can attest to this and knows the importance of winning this key crowd to their cause. Your tween and teen attendees can make your event a success, so don’t forget them in the planning stages.
Custom vinyl stickers geared to this demographic are an excellent choice when it comes to choosing the right promotional materials for your cause.
by Lance on July 12, 2010
Using Quality Wristbands for End-of-School-Year Fun Days
Some schools host an annual Field Day, full of outdoor activities and competition, but when I was in elementary school, our last day of school was called Fun Day. It was a day of games and fun in the schoolyard, and we played Tug-of-War and other classic games. Sometimes classes or grades were pitted against one another, other times we played boys versus girls, or chose our own teams, but most administrators today understand how that can get out of hand. If you want to keep any event organized, the addition of Event Wristbands can be a great boon. You can make your school’s Field Day or Fun Day an organized and successful day of excitement for all involved, with customized, colored wristbands, which provide teachers and kids alike with a visual way of remaining with their given teams.
* Designing the Wristbands: Use the opportunity of using customized, colored wristbands to add some flair to the day! In advance of the big day, you can allow teams to create their own designs, hold an all-school contest to choose everyone’s favorite logo, or use an image you already have on file, such as your school’s icon or mascot. Then, you can print your wristbands online, creating wristbands that define your teams, provide your school with some extra advertising, and serve as souvenirs of the best day ever.
* Getting Students Involved in the Design: Teachers may desire to have their students choose a team name and design their own logo. These can easily be added to the wristband. Just get your kids into their teams and ask them to work together to decide on a name, a color, and a design or logo for their team. Provide them with stickers, stencils, and pictures for inspiration. Animal pictures can really inspire some creative mascots. This activity can set the tone for the whole day of games and fun, fostering a sense of teamwork and creative thinking even before the kids get outside. Remember, durable, waterproof DuPont Tyvek wristbands will really withstand the wear and tear of your active students.
* Activities for Colored Wristbands: In addition to Tug-of-War, other games can also utilize the color-coded wristbands that will keep your teams organized on this fun, yet chaotic, day in the schoolyard. Classic games like tag and a safe, less physical version of Red Rover all will work well with the colored team wristbands, which also make it easy to join smaller groups together to create bigger teams. Try other games like kickball and even fun trivia games that use knowledge learned throughout the school year, and be sure to ask the students for their input. Their ideas may surprise you! Whatever you choose, being able to identify and organize your students based on easily visible wristbands will make transitions fast and simple.
* Turning the Wristbands into Keepsakes: After coming in from the outdoors, teachers may plan arts and crafts activities that use the wristbands from the day. Many parents keep scrapbooks of their children’s activities, so a keepsake will be very much appreciated by the parents. Something as simple as mounting the wristbands on colored construction paper that the kids may decorate would work, or something as complex as turning it into a craft object like a pencil holder can also create a keepsake for students and parents.
Durable quality colored wristbands that are waterproof will stand the test of activity in the schoolyard, as well as the test of time as a keepsake. Keeping large, active school events organized and fun is very important to keeping the day safe, efficient, and fair for all. Colored wristbands are a great way to achieve a successful school event like Fun Day!
When local governments are falling far short of their desired budgets and school districts across the country are cutting once essential programs just to stay open, parents, students and affected communities are starting to get creative. Instead of waiting for new revenue to come in through tax hikes or ballot proposals, many groups are taking a proactive approach to fill the budget gaps.
While some communities are standing by traditional fundraising techniques, such as car washes and bake sales, other communities are going for the gold, participating in high stakes fundraising in hopes of high stakes returns.
One such group based in Orange County, California Irvine Public Schools Foundation, currently raffling a house worth $700,000!
While a traditional raffle might offer small value tickets to a large number of individuals for a mid-level prize, a high value raffle involves selling a limited number of high value tickets for a very coveted grand prize such as a house or large cash payoff. The tickets for the Irvine Public Schools Foundation raffle are $150 each.
While the tickets may be out of some buyer's budgets, the foundation has provided other opportunities so everyone in the community can contribute. In addition to the raffle, a fundraisng concert is also being held. Tickets to the event are between $12 – $15, and raffle ticket holders get in for free. The whole community gets to participate.
Other communities are also getting creative. In Cupertino, California parents got together and raised $2 million dollars for their local school district in less than two months. Some of this was done through traditional fundraisers like garage sales and silent auctions. The parents also asked each member of the school community to donate a specific amount of money. Again, in this fundraiser, no one was left out. If one family couldn't donate, a family with more means stepped in and contributed on their behalf.
The money will go to save over 100 teachers jobs.
While times are especially tough on education, glimmers of hope can be found when teachers, parents and communities get creative with their fundraising efforts.
by Lance on April 26, 2010
The news can't be avoided. Our public schools are in the midst of an unprecedented budget crisis. All across the nation, school districts are being forced to cut back on programs. In many places, sports, music, arts, foreign languages and other curriculum which are often considered "non-essential" have already seen the chopping block. Forced to tighten their belts, school districts now have to make tough decisions about where to cut next. Proposals such as reducing staff, laying off teachers and cutting the school day and year have all been put forward as budgets continue to shrink.
In a time of such fiscal crisis, school fundraising has become more vital than ever. Many communities are stepping up the effort to bring in new streams of revenue so they can support their students and supplement shrinking government funding.
Unfortunately, with so many groups adding their voice to the fundraising chorus, the effort to raise funds has become a cacophony. Savvy community members and parents can find themselves frustrated, wanting to provide the best education for their children and finding hands out grasping for funding at every turn. Some individuals, tired of the constant barrage of requests, have been turned off completely from the idea of donating to yet another school related cause.
Many fundraisers feel all too familiar. Car washes, bake sales, and candy bar drives all fade into one another, occurring so frequently that community members become exhausted. Confronted by so many causes it's impossible to keep track of what they have contributed to. Overwhelmed by the crowded fundraising market, some individuals simply stop giving, feeling they have given enough already.
In light of this, it's important to meet fundraising burnout, with creative and savvy solutions. If your organization finds that its donations are decreasing, it may be time to reassess your efforts and give your fundraising plan a makeover.
Consider what West Lafayette, School District in Indiana did when it found its schools falling far short of its desired budget. Realizing that many small fundraisers were raising just a little money here or there in a scattershot approach, members of the community created a foundation through which all of the money could be funneled through. Though a number of fundraisers, from barbecues to garage sales, take place, participants know the money goes to one organization. With a united community, the foundation has more power to not only raise funds, but has a strong recognizable brand that can put itself behind political efforts to get new school funding referendums on the ballot.
In this way, traditional fundraising like school carnivals and raffles don't have to be thrown out completely. Instead the school fundraising groups organize around a central organization that the community can recognize and rally around.
by Lance on April 27, 2009
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1. Utilize Email Marketing
Keeping people continually informed and interested in your school and its events is a difficult task (in addition to the rest of the toils of operating a school). An email marketing campaign makes keeping in touch with parents and community members simple, and is well worth the minimal effort. The following are some quick tips to develop a successful email marketing campaign.
- Tailor emails for Each Recipient’s Interests: In order to be successful with an email campaign you must know what your recipients find valuable. There are a few options to achieve this. When your recipients first sign up for your email be sure to include boxes they can check to receive information for each club, student organization, sports team, as well as general school news or other topically related content. Another option is to include surveys and polls with each email, this way you can continually react to your recipients desires even if they change.
- Establish a Schedule for Writing and Distributing: Establishing a set frequency is required to hold people’s attention and keep them looking forward to receiving your emails. You must find a balanced based on available resources, your ability to create valuable information, and your recipient’s desires.
- Email Marketing Software: Email marketing software is a great investment as it integrates database information and designs specific emails for each recipient group. The obvious benefit is the time saved by eliminating the need to manually compose each email and enter data. EmailLabs.com provides good API software.
2. Incorporate a Web Calendar
It’s essential to integrate a web calendar into the school website. Period. A web calendar allows visitors to quickly check up on current events, and even add to their own calendars. They can also be customized to different groups, and updated easily by many users simultaneously. There are many web calendar applications out there. Trumba event calendars
(www.trumba.com) are easy to use and offer several useful features. Both Google and Yahoo also offer free event calendars.
3. Host Blogs/Forums
As stated earlier, keeping your school in the fore-front of people’s minds should be the overall goal; a blog on your school webpage is an efficient way to accomplish this. Creating separate blogs for each student activity group will allow visitors to easily find the blogs that interest them. For example, the head football coach might maintain a blog on the football page. Remember to include pictures in your blogs for visual reference. For more valuable info on creating a great blog visit buildabetterblog.com.
4. Integrate Wiki Pages
A Wiki page is a webpage with the capability of being edited by authorized website visitors. Not many schools have wiki pages, which presents a great opportunity for your school. Sports teams, music and choral departments, and student organizations should each have a dedicated wiki page on your school’s website. Wiki pages communicate real, personal experiences and interaction, and invoke excitement. Parents, students, or anyone involved can post pictures, stories, and comments relating to each entity. Not only will this create a sense of involvement for contributors, but the insightful content will also spark the interest of non-contributing visitors. PBwiki provides a wiki application that makes creating media rich wiki pages a breeze. For more information on general wiki page creation, visit www.intersci.ss.uci.edu.
5. Post Regular Video and Podcasts
Podcasts are utilized even less often by schools than wikis, but are a great way to promote student events. Podcasts are similar to blogs in that they can easily be published, syndicated, shared and accessed by the general public; the main difference being the information is audio and video rather than just text. Collect audio and video files of existing moments during athletic events, band concerts, theater events, etc. Users can help spread the word by downloading the files and sharing them via iPod, email, Facebook or MySpace posts. Podcasts go a long way toward creating buzz and excitement for your events.
It’s important to post new podcasts regularly, otherwise the appeal is lost. In order to preserve talk and excitement, people must have something new to talk about. Apple.com has more info on podcasts.
6. Establish RSS Feeds
An RSS (“real simple syndication”) feed is vital to the effectiveness of the above components. Subscribers are automatically updated on new website content or events without having to regularly check your website. New podcasts or video content, newsletters, blog posts, school news, or current events should be put on your RSS feed homepage. An RSS feed can also be integrated with your web calendar or published on other web sites. Ultimately an RSS allows even the most time constrained individuals to stay up-to-date on your schools news and events. For more info on creating RSS feeds visit WilsonWeb.com.
7. Consider Social Networking
As the web continues to grow more “social” a number of opportunities are presented that allow for efficient and effective communication with the people involved with your school. Post some of your better videos, stories and pictures on sites like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Flickr. Doing these things will go toward creating an adequate web presence, an element that will directly affect event attendance.
You might not want to get too entrenched with social networking, but you don’t want to get left behind either. Place someone in charge of keeping track of the constant changes in technology this way your school can react strategically. Making your media and information easy to obtain will increase the chance that it will become widely distributed.
