Desperately Seeking Advice on a School Event

You could do a toga contest or the Coliseum Cake Walk for games. Also, I'm a professional facepainter and kids ALWAYS love that. Most facepainters will usually even donate a portion of proceeds to the school as a fundraiser for the event.

Love the idea of using the Greek gods for the silent auction baskets:
Aphrodite - beauty products
Apollo - sun block, sun glasses, beach towel or small musical instruments or a radio and a music store gift card
Artemis - baby items
Athena - skill games - battleship, chess, checkers
Demeter - gardening tools and seeds
Dionysius - wine glasses and charms and movie tickets or movie store gift card
Hera - couples massage gift certificate or dining out gift card
Hermes - note cards, stamps, pens
Hestia - fire log, scented pinecones, fireplace matches
Poseiden - goldfish bowl, gravel, decoration for bowl, fish food and water treatment
Zues, Ares and Hades - ?

For the games, you could have an Icarus and Daedulus themed one where they throw feathers into a basket, one where they
knock over the columns with a ball, instead of ducks in a pond - use ships and call it "Pick an Argo", use a Titan themed backdrop to throw beanbags through the hole.

Food could include gyros, grapde leaf dolmas, antipasto plates, pita chips and dip, almond bars and Baklava. Blue and white are colors often used in Greek history.

I like the idea of having each grade be responsible for a themed basket. Our school does that each year for the fall carnival.

As for a craft, the only Greek themed thing on Orientaltrading.com was some Greek beads. The kids could use them to make bracelets or necklaces. You could add other glass/plastic/wooden beads for variety. Another idea would be to provide small pots for the kids to paint. A better idea is probably to have them make scrolls. You could use wooden dowels to anchor the ends of the paper,then they could draw pictures of some Greek themed scenery or write their name or a story or whatever.

Good luck! I hope you get the help you need!

Hi T.,
First, time to sit people down and demand some assist: if people won't volunteer, then do some recruiting.

Also, when I was in Elementary, we had Greek Olympics. Teams were by class and grade; we all made construction paper olive-leaf crowns; and the games were all fun/easy: tug-of-war; 3-legged races; a micro-marathon; relay races; etc. It was pot-luck, so the families brought different middle-eastern and eurasian foods.

We even all dressed in short togas made from bed sheets over our clothes (I painted the olympic flag on a sheet, too)!

Huge success, we even made the local paper!

Have fun :)
T

wow, you got a really tough thing going on here. first send letters to all parents and ask for volunteers. second, get a trays of baklava (sams and costco carry them), they also have frozen spanakopita (not too pricey), and tzakiki sauce. as for rest, good luck

Sorry you don't have the support you need :-(.

Check out www.ptotoday.com for ideas and they also have a file exchange.
Do you still have time to get more help?
Can you simplify? Is there a Greek restaurant that might be willing to help?
Does your school have a movie license so you could show a movie (Clash of the Titans, or an older one or a PBS show?)
I would look at a list of the major Greek Gods and see if I could figure out how to make a basket for each of them (persephone's garden, .
We ask each grade level to donate to a theme basket (Kindergarten - garden stuff, 1st grade arts and crafts, etc.)
For games maybe go Olympic? Although I would be careful about javeline throwing :-)
Poseidon's dunking booth would be fun if you can get teachers to volunteer for the booth. See if you can put out a flyer with a list of ideas to start the ball rolling and see if anyone gets excited to help. They may be thinking that they dont' have any great ideas, but once theget started they can have some fun with its.

HI,
My daughters' school does a silent auction every year. They raised over $30,000 this year. They too had a theme, but did not necessarily have bidding baskets that dealt withthe theme. Each grade was assigned a theme (movies, sports, game night, spa...)the grade that had the highest bidding basket got to have an ice cream party at school. It was a great motivation to put together baskets. Their school PTA works hard all year to put it together, and getting donations from the community. They also had different teachers donate their time for a special activity with them (Pizza and movie in the classroom after school for 3 kids with their teacher, cookie baking day at another teacher's house (a friend bid $125.00 for this and was out bid). Good luck, hope it works out well!

You can go to www.birthdaypartyideas.com - I did see something under Miscellaneous parties regarding one with the theme "Greek Mythology"

Local grocery store deli to see if they will donate some greek pasta salad as a sice. Then, you couldjust do Costco Pizza as most kids will eat that and it will all be hot already, you just need other adults to help you put it on plates with pasta salad and any other food you can get donated. You have to have help. Have to.

Hi T. - That's too much for one person to take on in my opinion! I'm sure you could find a way to plan it on your own but it would be impossible for one person to execute it. This isnt just your school, it's everyone's school and everyone at school should do their part to help with the fundraiser. Why should one person be saddled with the full responsibility of doing what they wont do for themselves?

I would suggest talking with the PTO chairman and the principal at your school about your situation and ask if staff could help find volunteers for you. Be specific about jobs that need to be done and give them specific deadlines. Teachers and Staff will be motivated since it is a school fundraiser. If there are no volunteers to help, then tell them you will simply need to cancel the fundraiser until people are motivated to move forward.

Teachers can easily send out an email to parents with a call for help. Give the teachers a list of jobs that need to be done that they can choose from or dole out to parents. Give parents you know at school a call and ask them to do specific jobs. If you make them relatively simple, they usually wont say no.

For silent auction ideas go through your phone list and call everyone you've done business with. Nails, Hair, bakery, restaurants,coffee shops, Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage, GNC, personal trainers, coaches, lessons, tutoring, massage, bouncy houses, party planners, Mary Kay, Arbonne, Homemade Gourmet, cleaning service, golf courses, rec centers, gym/fitness center, airplane rides, bowling alleys, signed sports items, sporting event or concert tickets, handmade jewelry, fine jewelry, fine wine . . .

I hope that helps you!

If no one had signed up to help me with an event this big, I would send out a letter/email letting everyone know that it would not be happening this year due to lack of parent involvement. If that generates some volunteers, you could go ahead and do it. Otherwise, cancel it and hope for a better turnout next year.

T.,
Sorry I can't help in the short term. But for the future, I have a stress- free fundraising program. Let me know if you would be interested later when you have time to look at it.
Personally, I would not go forward until someone signed up to help!
Good luck,
Victoria

How about trying to get a gift cert from a local pool for free swim times, or a pool party as a Poseiden. Look into a gift cert from a local interior decorator for Hestia, Goddess of hearth and home. Wine gift basket for Dionysus, God of wine, parties/festivities. Gift cert to a local book store for Athena, Goddess of wisdom. (Or perhaps a local museum). Goft cert for a free music lesson or tickets for a musical performance for Apollo. Talk to local places, let them know what's going on , the format and that is a cheap and great way to advertise to a new adutience. Potential new customers in a down ecomony is key.

Send a letter home with kids in the class. Talk to the teacher, talk to the kids, and get them excited about the event so they can bug their parents to get involved also. Make it fun.

For games, I would just morph existing well known games into Greek themes. Ask kiddos for advice, they are great with ideas. Good luck!

my 8 y.o. son just had a mythology themed bday party on saturday. we had the kids make pipe cleaner "laurel" headpieces, played "pin the eye on the cyclops," decoded a message written in "greek" (the riddle of the sphinx,) and made "ancient" coin necklaces/bracelets. i had a quiz show idea, to have the kids answer questions about mythology & gods, but it was more than i could pull off;) i'd be happy to give you more info, if it helps. good luck!

Is there a PTO you ask to help? Another idea is to ask each room mother to send out a plea for help to the parents in her class ... or perhaps assign a food, game or craft to each classroom and have the room mother coordinate for her class.

There are lots of kids games on the internet. Perhaps make a list of acceptable foods to make it easier...fruit/veggies & dip, what brand of cookies/cake/brownies that are safe, bottled water, etc.

Sounds like this could be really fun if you had some help. Good luck!

For food, fruit and veggie trays, you can also buy pita bread and hummus. Maybe you could do a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey like game, like pin the lightning bolt on Zeus' hand or something.