to think this is unfair to kids who don't have people to sponsor them (school event)

[SophisticatedSkivvy]

DD's school is doing a sponsored event. DC who raise more than £10 in sponsorship get a medal. The sponsor form was only given out last week and the event is on Friday.

We don't have anybody locally to sponsor her. Won't be seeing family for a while. DH is not keen to ask work colleagues who have never met DD. Times have changed since the old days where you could send them out knocking doors in the neighbourhood asking for strangers to sponsor them.

I have had to pledge the whole £10 which is a stretch as I don't want DD to be one of the few not to have a medal.

Should not ALL the DC get a medal just for taking part no matter how much money they raise, as after all it's not in the DC's control how much money they can get?

Don't particularly support a charity which pays it's Chairman a 1/4 of a million pounds a year from donations given by people much worse off either but have no choice in doing so.

At my DCs primary they used to have a priZe for the child who raised the most money. It's not a particularly affluent area. We got a new head who was horrified and put a stop to it straight away.

Would you complain to the Governors about it?

Yanbu. Prize should be for all children no matter how much they donate. It's been going on forever though, I remember my DM putting down pets names to up the numbers on our forms when we were in school and paying the money herself.

YANBU.
When OP says they dont have anyone, the inevitable 'dont you have family' comments are pretty nasty.

Does your dd even want a medal? It's just another piece of tat that's pointless and bad for the environment. You shouldn't sponsor £10 if it's a stretch, you should sponsor 50p or £1 and tell your dd that she doesn't need a medal and doesn't need to be upset about it.

Oh yeah at ours, there was also a prize for the dc that raised the most. I told my dd to just concentrate on the important things in life, not some tat or certificate for taking in £100+ (yes someone really did!). My dd was fine about it.

I was never allowed to ask people for sponsorship - mum used to just always pledge a tenner for me.

My DC have no living grandparents. DH's family live in rural North Africa and my DB has similar age children to me. So the only person we could ask for sponsorship is my DB but we would end up sponsoring his DC for similar amounts during the year so its all a bit pointless. We just put in the money ourselves and wish that they just asked for donations rather than the sponsorship fiction.

YANBU - we live in Australia, no local family and a lot of our friends are in the same boat and we all agreed years ago not go ask each other for sponsorship. I just buy the book with raffle tickets etc. but appreciate that's not an option for a lot of people.

I bin every sponsorship card that comes into the house for this reason. We don't have family nearby and I hate asking people and being asked. I will donate to the school but hate this "prize for best begging" attitude. Stand with me and dump that card!