A PSA about supporting your schools without extra money from your pockets...

I'm taking a break from crafting with this post to just share some info I've been researching lately. This may not be news to you, but as a mom of young children who haven't entered the public school system yet, this is good info for someone like me, so I wanted to pass it along.

As you may not know, I'm the Registrar for Morgan's preschool. With the economy as it is, many sectors of the economy locally have been affected, which has meant the need for scholarships to attend preschool, as well as withdrawals because of financial reasons. I hate to see the kids go because of this.

I have been racing around the net, looking for ways to bump up our school scholarship fund. We are a non-profit school, so attendance is vital to our survival, which means that we don't have a lot of extra money to spend, and if we are short on students, we get worried about paying the school's bills, and don't have a penny to spare for scholarships.

I was trying to think of easy ways for people to contribute to their schools without having to shell out a lot of money from their pockets.

Two really easy ways to participate are through Upromise, and Box Tops for Education.

With Upromise, you simply link your grocery store member id number or a credit card with them, and a percentage of your purchases will be sent to the school of your choice. I linked my grocery store member id numbers, and each month at the school, our treasurer has a notation of a couple of dollars here and there in checks we have received, which can go straight to our scholarship fund. With some scholarships, we are doing something as simple as $25/month discount, so every little dollar helps.

With Upromise, I was able to choose my daughter's preschool.

With Box Tops for Education, I was not able to add the preschool, so instead, I looked to the school she will be attending for her elementary years. I'm sure you have seen those little labels on Box Tops in your grocery store from various items like cereal to granola bars, to quick meals, etc. It doesn't take much to rip them off and toss the label in an envelope. Then you simply send it to your school coordinator and they forward it on. You can get the info about which school to contribute to and who their coordinator is on the Box Tops website. The school gets 10 cents for every label, so they can really add up, and you didn't have to fork out any extra money.

I just wanted to share these easy ideas, because I hate to hear when programs are cut or schools are short on supplies, and if everyone participated in something like this, it would help a lot, I think. I'm even having the grandparent's do it, and send me their tops.

That's it. Have a great Tuesday!

P.S. I was asked whether you had to get kits from Studio Calico in order to participate in my Project 12 challenge. The answer is you absolutely do not. Anyone can participate. This month you will be eligible to enter by linking your layouts at the SC blog and here for a prize. I hope you will play along!

:)