Categories
news

MAPLE PTA – COVID-19 Response

How can you help?

Maple PTA wanted to help their community during the COVID-19 crisis. They were looking for PTA fundraiser ideas.
​
​They created a special committee in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Maple PTA worked with community members to create PPE face shields for their local first-responders and other medical front-line personnel.

They set up an easy to follow system using google docs to get everyone involved. These are no longer being used  but you can see how they set this up.

PTA can make a difference!

The students, parents and teachers became heros in their community with the medical community. As a result they got a lot of good press in the news for their helping a good cause.

Join the National PTA.

You can learn more about the Maple PTA here:

This website is not associated with the official Maple PTA. Instead it is a blog that will highlight the good work of PTA groups all over the country.

Categories
news

PTA fundraising ideas for small schools

One of the biggest complaints we see on PTA forums is the struggles that small schools have raising funds. Let’s face it the more students a school has the more parents will sign up to help. So what can a small school do to raise money?

Create a family atmosphere

One of the problems that BIG school PTA groups have is getting parents to want to step up to the plate and help out. So, both large and small elementary schools face a common problem — Getting parents involved.

When every parent feels needed and appreciated they will bend over backwards to help their students. A great example of this is the Maple PTA Covid response.

Fundraising synergy

The term “synergy” means:

the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

What does this mean?

One parent can work very hard and make an impact. However they only have so many hours in the day. Furthermore, they only look at things from one angle or perspective.

However, when you add 2 or more others to this group you now have a PTA MASTERMIND.

What is a PTA mastermind?

Napolean Hill, the author of “Think and Grow Rich” made the term “mastermind” very popular.

To improve your professional and personal talents, mastermind groups combine creativity, education, peer responsibility, and support. You and the other members of your mastermind group can succeed together with the aid of the group. Members push one another to create challenging but, more importantly, successful goals.

When you make a safe place for every member to participate and be heard you can create awesome ideas that one person by themselves could never do.

By bouncing ideas off each other a simple idea can become an amazing idea!

Here are some ideas to get your PTA started…

Start with these simple PTA fundraisers that are very popular. Then brainstorm to find ways to make it unique and work for your small school PTA.

1. Have a parent night out at a local restaurant or bar. Ask the business owner if they will donate a percentage of the proceeds from sales during the event back to your school.

2. Have an auction, silent or otherwise. This is a great way to bring in money and parents can donate items.

3. Have a bake sale. This is a classic and it always works to raise funds for your PTA

4. Have a school carnival or fair. A lot of schools do this as an annual event but if you haven’t done one in awhile, try it!

5. Have a dance party. This is great for the kids and parents.

Categories
news

Makers for Medics

What Was Makers For Medics?

They were a group consisting of parents, educators, local government representatives, maker spaces, tinkerers, and regular citizens working together to produce and dispense face shields as PPE for medical practitioners to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 using open source designs.

How did they do this?

They used seed donations and self-funded the PPE production costs during the pandemic, sending it to healthcare professions who required it. They did, however, make a public need for assistance in order to match the crisis’s enormous need. The Greater Cleveland area PPE was funded and made possible by all donations and assistance toward the goal amount.

Organizations that were involved:

  • Maple Intermediate PTA: Makers for Medics Committee
  • Willoughby Eastlake School of Innovation
  • Cuyahoga County
  • MakerGear

The Makers for Medics committee and the Maple Intermediate PTA Executive Board divided the funds. Any excess that we couldn’t be used to create PPE were be used towards additional COVID-19 relief activities or for the Maple Intermediate PTA’s community engagement and educational initiatives.