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So, today was a busy day. One of the things we do as a PTA organization is hold an annual fundraiser to cover our operating costs and hopefully have enough left over to give back to the schools in the form of grants requested from the staff. Last year we were able to give about $14,000 back to both schools. We have very generous parents and usually have successful fundraisers.

Of course, the key to every successful fundraiser is a kick-off to get the kids excited since they are the vessel that bring the catalog and information to the parents. We had some scheduling conflicts and other minor catastrophes that forced us to do some creative kick-offs today.

This morning, our fundraiser rep, Thomas, came to Endeavour (the 2-5 school) to do the kick-off there. He brought a Mac with a detailed PowerPoint slide show, some swirly disco lights, a giant stadium speaker on wheels and a projector that connected to the Mac. As the entire student population filed into the tiny gymnasium, Thomas had some exciting BMX and skateboard video running on his high falutin' set-up. The room was full of oohs and ahhhs and a lot of excitement was building. Thomas' presentation was concise, exciting and full of jokes that the kids understood. He executed superior crowd control and was able to keep the kids silent for most of the presentation. After he was done, he told the kids a cocka-mamie story about an invisible key that turned off their mouths. As the kids filed out, they were silent; just as Thomas instructed them.

We still had the Discovery (grades K-1) school to go, but Thomas had another engagement that he had to do in the afternoon. Thomas drove 2 hours from his home to get to our school and then had to go back another 90 minutes to his last venue. So, Leanne (our Fundraiser committee chair) and I decided we would do the kick-off assembly for Discovery. Thomas kindly put his stellar PowerPoint show on a jump drive so we could have the same tools he did. Leanne and I studied his technique earlier and we were confident we could entrance the kindergarten and first grade audience just as he had...except for a few things. 1. We had a PC to do the slide show with, so it didn't translate quite right. There were no BMX videos to enthrall the audience. 2. Thomas had to take all his gizmos with him to the other venue, so we didn't have much in the way of prizes to show the kids, but we did have a poster. 3. All the jokes and audience behavior tricks Thomas exhibited kinda went up the highway with him.

Leanne did well for her first fundraiser presentation. The kids clapped when we mentioned ice cream and I'm pretty sure we lost them after that. The principal got stern with the noisy kids, but they did like it when I put on the fake eyeball glasses after we told them they could win them for selling 2 items. Later, many of the kids wondered why the glasses weren't in their packets they had to bring home. They really didn't put the two together.

I enjoyed the glasses so much, I took them home. That's why I'm modeling them here. It's hard to figure out the appropriate mouth to make in glasses like that, so I went with the Mary Kate and Ashley look. My friend Mike once read that the key to getting a perfect MKandA pout was to say the word 'prune' as your picture is being taken. I think it works pretty well.