Usually, a restaurant will give, 10, 15 or 20 % of the sales back to the school as a thank you for bringing business in to them. For the 2nd year in a row, we went to the pizza place I work at and had the school teachers serve the food and work for tips. We opt out for reduce menu prices and work for 100% tips instead of a portion of the bill back. This is usually very successful and makes more money than any of our other dinner nights.
This is our principal. It is his first year at our school. His name is Rhett. Rhett Butler, and no he doesn't want to hear your jokes about his name. Frankly, he doesn't give a damn! He was our host, for the night. He seated everyone and worked the room.
This is me on the right and D1's 1st grade teacher. She was a waitress for the whole evening. On a side note, My 1st year out of college when I coached varsity high school tennis, the lovely Ms. Hamilin was one of my players.
Here is a 3rd grade teacher, cleaning and getting ready for the next crew to come and eat. Mrs. Hershberger is a veteran teacher, who did her student teaching when my sister was in 3rd grade.
Here are two 1st grade teachers, a Kindergarten teacher and a 4th grade teacher. I enjoy these ladies so much. The one in the blue shirt has a sister that I went to school with and a daughter in my daughters class, and the one in the light gray shirt, was a freshman tennis player than I had the privilege to coach for 3 years!
Thirteen teachers in all help that evening. They worked so hard and raised $535 dollars for our school next year! With budget cuts this money will go directly back to them for the PTO to buy much needed supplies and materials that the corporates budget can't afford.
I have to say this, I was worried that this dinner night wouldn't be as successful this year, because we lost 200 students due to a new intermediate school that opened this fall. All elementary schools are now K-4 instead of K-6. I was also concerned by the economy and a little worried because we were only going to be open for 3 hours this year instead of 4 like last year.
I should know by now that my kids go to a great school. These teachers were averaging $100+ an hour in tips after only two hours. Most families were leaving anywhere between $10 and $20 in tips. This is a great community that rallies behind it's school.
At the end of the night, we made $135 more than last year. Amazing....less students, less hours of serving and more $!
Now it is time to gear up for the biggest fundraiser of the year! The Zaar, last year we made almost $30,000 in one night. March 12th is when we will try to one up it!
So much to do, so little time.
Oh if your reading and wanting to help, drop me an email, We are looking for donations of items, gift cards, or services of any kind for the raffle. This years grand prize $400 VISA card. If you don't have anything to donate and would like to buy some raffle tickets, they are $1 each or $5 for 6. Need not be present to win!
Courtney
