I was hoping that maybe some of the most creative people out there (yes! I am talking to you) could help me with suggestions..........
Our elementary school has an annual auction and each classroom donates a basket that is auctioned off on the night of the event. This will be my fourth year in charge of coordinating all the baskets. I love to do it, however I feel that my themes are the same old thing. I am hoping for suggestions from anyone............Please leave me a comment. I will choose one lucky person and send them a little package. Please respond to me by Friday, February 6th. Winner will be announced on this blog......Sunday.
Oh - here is the list of themes that I have used in the past:
Honey Do……(handy man)
Girls Bday (last year Hannah Montana bday party)
Boys Bday (last year Pirate bday party)
Cocktail Hour
Family Day Out
Sweets and Treats
Date Night
Webkinz
Gift Wrap
Cooking/Baking
Mom’s Basket
Dad’s Basket
Family Night In
Summertime
Crafting/Scrapbooking
Music Lover
Car Care
Pamper Me
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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12 comments:
Our elementary school had two other themes. One was "Gardener's Delight" with cute gloves, tools, seeds, hand balm, etc. And we split up the cooking themed basket and made an "Italian Dinner" basket and a "Burrito basket" with dinner ingredients, cute accessories and paper products. Good luck!
I belong to a non for profit board and our preschool/day care classes donate baskets by class for our annual dinner auction....the one that has been the most successful is the American Girl basket....Our school is even going to use that idea this year as it was so successful. (we had a mom who had a doll (new) put away which she generously donated...the other one for the school....several parents are going in together to donate money to buy the new doll to donate. The other one that has gone so well is the ice cream basket filled with ice cream bowls and yummies to put into a sundae, scoop,fun spoons... along with coupons to our local ice cream
shop. Also, family movie night was a hit...with bags of microwave popcorn, big boxes of candy, donated "family" movies (DVD's)and donated tickets (for a family of 4) to the local movie plex.
This is some stuff we did for our boys scout banquet raffles~
FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT~
PLASTIC POPCORN BUCKET($1 family sized red/white striped)
PERSONAL SIZED POPCORN BUCKET (2 in a pack for a buck! got 2) from the local dollar store.
4 DVD's-action for dad, comedy for the family, chick flick for mom and kids movie.
Boxes of candies from walmart $1 each. It was a hit.
We also did
FAMILY CAMPING~
large cooler and filled it with cooking stuff for camping. Marshmellows
chocolate bars
graham crackers
marshmellow sticks
egg holders
toast makers
spatula
table cloth
kettle
bug spray
paper goods
silverware
tea bags/instant coffe
stuff like that. That was huge.
OR-
Beach Bum-
inflateable beach items
sand pales and shovels
sunblock
a book for mom
beach towel
sun hat
sun glasses, etc...
Home Decor- Country
Ice Cream Sundae Party-toppings, bowls, spoons, placemats,etc...
Family Game basket- cards, travel games,etc
Coffee lovers- mugs, stirers, coffee, biscotti/biscuts,etc..
If I think of anything else I'll let you know. Good Luck!!
THought of some more!
Money Tree- a card holder from xmas and $1 scratch-offs (if parents are at the raffle)
Baby Shower Basket
Hi. Just wanted to let you know we posted a recipe and linked back to your blog. My giveaway suggestions: our auction always had a basket for kids, with markers, papers, scissors, etc. Also, we auctioned off a reserved parking spot in the parking lot. That way, one lucky Mom always had a spot waiting for her right up front. They also auctioned a "pick your teacher" or "pick your schedule". Of course, the principal has to ok this. Hope those help.
We've done the following: * tea basket, * coffee basket, * gift card basket (all kids of cards plus wrapping paper), * chocolate basket, * candle basket, * glamour basket (include gift certificate to local spa as well as pampering items). Hope I helped. Joanne ~~ glamourgirljoanne@yahoo.com
Hi Casa Rue--I was sent over from Sweet Savannah's blog. Here goes:
Are the students at the event? If they are, then we found the best thing to do was to use them as the target audience instead of catering to the parents...Jonas brothers has to be a big one for the girls (I don't have any girls).
For adults, we used to auction off a wine basket. That was REALLY popular. Some parents are collectors and will donate a few bottles.
I also had sports memorabilia and autographed items. Moms like those things to buy for Dads. Plus the boys love autographed items. If this is something the students donate to each basket, this may be a little difficult. We would sometimes have everyone donate money (which working mothers love) so we could get these accomplished.
Game baskets are always a hit--Wii, whatever system adding accessories.
Ipod basket with iTunes gift card, etc.
I also did a frame display one year. Every Mom loves frames. We put it on a display tray with a small lamp creating a small vignette. Pick your 'decorator' Mom for this one.
Along with scrapbooking, something more geared toward the kids is an art supply basket. Moms love this one. Paint, how to books, boxed projects from Hobby Lobby, etc.
For girls, what about a slumber party basket? You could put in nail polish, snacks, slippers, movie, karaoke, princess crowns, fleece blanket maybe, and the like. You get the idea. Moms look for these things for their kids and also a niece (or nephew if geared to boys) that might be having a celebration soon.
I used to do the baskets and auction for the little league, so my thoughts are more boy and sports oriented. You could do a sports basket---basketballs, footballs, yard games, pool toys, etc. great for summer fun.
If a teacher is willing, you could do a party with her and make it a mall scavenger hunt type deal with lunch?? Or with a male teacher it could be a paintball party. You'd have to pick a favorite teacher of course.
The money tree mentioned is a great idea. We put together a 'lotto' basket with all scratch-offs. This of course if you have lotto in your state.
Also on the family camping one mentioned--I would gear it more toward a boys sleepover or party night.
Live auction or silent? Remember LIVE always (!) makes more money, so if you could do a few of the best baskets LIVE that would make even more money!
My thoughts are all over the place. If you give me more parameters I can narrow down a bit.
Good luck. My kids aren't in elementary school anymore...how I long for those days now.... :)
Note: If the kids are there, they are the BEST source of revenue because they put all kinds of pressure on parents for their favorite basket!!
I'm happy to email more thoughts...
One more idea:
How about a kids cooking basket? include youth cook books, chef hat, colorful bowls and utensils, etc.
How about a Spring Basket "Bird Theme". You could use a nest and fill it with decorative eggs, a porcelain or chippy white bird, tea towels with birds..have Melonie make you one of her cute towels with a crown and bird on top. How about soaps in the shape of eggs...get people looking forward to spring. This shouldn't be hard to do. :)
Two more then I'll stop...
One the gift card basket mentioned before--maybe it's from local restaurants for 'Moms Night Off' kind of thing. One Mom displayed her gift cards and certificates on forks (using the tongs for grips) it was so cute.
If my ideas are breaking the bank, how about a basket of monthly desserts? Display one so they have something to take home with them, and then include IOUs for desserts to come throughout the remaining months of the school year. Maybe you could include one of Sweet Savannah's cute kitchen towels?
I'll stop now...
Hi, I'm in the middle of working on the silent auction at my son's school right now and we have come up with a couple of new things. We created baskets themed towards a certain sport, i.e., baseball and filled it with tickets to the minor league team in town, popcorn, cracker jacks, a couple of t-shirts, toy bats and balls and then asked a well known, and respected youth baseball coach if he would donate a couple hours of his time to teach a baseball clinic for the winner's kids. We did this for a few different sports and so far everyone seems excited about the idea. I think throwing in the clinic ramped the plain old boring done before basket theme up a notch.
Hi Donna! I just "found" you through your comment on Meg's blog. I have a 14YO as well, so I loved your remarks.
I've coordinated baskets for our school in the past as well! A few that come to mind that you don't have listed are:
grilling
dog care
cat care
princess
local sport team items
current holiday (Easter, Mother's Day, etc.)
Another fun thing we do is have every class donate a glass jar (any size) filled with items of their choice...candy, golf tees, crayons, bouncy balls, etc....and we sell tickets to guess the number of items. (one ticket per guess, per jar) The winner, of course, wins the jar. In case of a tie, we draw straws.
Good luck, and remember to have fun!
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