CHALLENGER

Apollo High School Owensboro, Ky 42301 January, 2004

Scrips fundraiser idea borrowed from Catholic
by: E.B. Roberts
Senior Editor

A Scrips fundraiser has been started by Mrs. Coomes for the purpose of funding faculty incentive programs.

The idea originated from the Catholic School System's Scrips program and our school's deficiency of funds for those programs.

The faculty incentives include activities such as Christmas parties and faculty Christmas gifts, and a barbecue in the spring.

The funding for these activities originally depended solely on the money made from the vending machines in the teacher's lounge. This money, however, was insufficient. Mrs. Coomes is a member of Catholic Elementary School's PTO, where her son attends. There, she became aware of its Scrips program.

"We made very little money off of the adult vending machines," observes Mrs. Coomes. "The scrips fundraiser is how we paid for the faculty Christmas party." She made the suggestion to Mr. Purcell that Apollo might benefit from the same fundraiser Catholic has been using, and he had the idea approved . The Scrips fundraiser has been running since the start of the year and will continue indefinitely.

"It's an adult fundraiser, so we could probably do it for as long as we want," Mrs. Coomes points out.

Sellers of the scrips make money by buying gift cerificates at a discount rate and selling them at face value.

Teachers and faculty buy gift certificates from a number of businesses. The buyers are able to see a list of businesses.

From the list they can compare which gift certificate purchase would give the school the highest percentage. The school makes an average of 5-8% on each purchase. Another offshoot program of the scrips fundraiser is being run through Kroger. Teachers and faculty can purchasea reloadable Kroger giftcard from Mrs. Coomes. The faculty purchases groceries and other Krogers items and Apollo receives 5% of everything they spend.

The school has already made $875 with this giftcard program alone.This fundraiser has been very successful. Many people turned to Mrs. Coomes's gift cards for Christmas gift ideas.

For example, Mrs. Coomes says, "A faculty member could buy a gift card from me for O'Charley's for a Christmas gift. It would be the same gift card they would get as if they'd gone to O'Charley's to get it."

As Mrs. Coomes explains, "Teachers will buy groceries, gas, go to restaurants and that is what we sell. Most of it is money they would spend anyway."

The money the school makes in the Scrips fundraiser has aleady gone back to the faculty in the form of the Christmas party. More options are now open to the faculty for activities for the rest of this upcoming semester.