Ideas for stalls at school fete????

[KBear]

I'm new to this PTA lark and need some bright ideas from the experts. What's a money-spinner, what is doomed to fail, what do the kids love, what is a waste of time? Also I need tips on asking local businesses to donate prizes or sponsorship. Thanks everyone!

Bottle and chocolate tombolas always have queues.

definitely need a cake stall. Kids love those big bins full of wrapped presents and shredded paper - usually you pay btw 10p and 50p and delve in for a pressie - is that called a tombola?!

mums might like a plant stall

Lucky envelopes.

£1 an envelope. 1 in 5 chance of winning with the prizes being worth a minimum of £5. This is a great way to use up the museum vouchers and the small gifts from shops!

You need plain envelopes. You write/type on a small slip of paper what the prize is or sorry you have not won this time. Put paper in envelope and seal. So 4X sorry envelopes for every 1X you have won envelope.

It's an instant profit maker and very popular with the adults.

That's a Bran Tub (?) compo.

Face Painting. Must be staffed by at least 2 people. Charge £1 a time. Limit the choices of faces to be done to 4 (special requests take too long).

The biggest seller at my DCs Christmas fair was a tattoo stall.

Chuldren paid £1 for a stick on tattoo thingy. They were queuing back for miles

The face painting stall was a hit too!

Bouncy Castle - always made a good profit over and above the cost of hiring it.

Hook a duck thing for little kids. Everyone gets a prize, usually a lollipop

Crockery Alley

You go around the charity shops buying tatt, you stack it all on a flaky shelf unit, with no back and you let the kids/adults lob cricket balls at them.

No prizes for the adults--brilliant stress reliever

Minimal prizes for the kids, Mars bar or something similar.

tip for local businesses

Write on headed paper, esp school paper if you can get some.

Tell them what it is for, the date of the event.

If you have a program offer them advertising space for cash (£25 1/4 page, £50 1/2 page, £100 full page).

Write to museums, sports clubs, galleries etc. Some will say yes and even give semi decent prizes.

Have you approached one of the local estate agents for sponsorship? They will often say that for every board someone displays (saying that they are sponsors of the fair) they will give you £50.

Can't think of anything else just now, trying to decide whether or not to put the DTs in the bath or let daddy do it. Probably daddy...........

Sorry for separate posts, things keep springing to mind.

A BBQ was always popular - We'd hire 2 large gas barbecues. Always had a big profit. Make sure you have veggie options.

006

Re, expenses I should jolly well think not.

Guess the number of......in the........ type of competitions.

A human fruit machine.

3 adult volunteers sit behind a table where they can't see the players Glam the 'stall' up with a bit of cloth. They have a selection of fruit, bananas apple, etc (about 3/4 is enough). Pay 10p, get the player to ring a bell or something and each adult holds up a fruit (If they are really super they hold it up exactly like a machine, i.e. 1st person, then 2nd person, then 3rd) If the fruit matches, they win a prize. Sounds complicated to describe but is a very simple idea. Is a good idea to change the volunteers, can be very weary.

Lucky dip in cold spaghetti (add a bit of oil to make it really slimey, perhaps use wrapped sweets as prizes or tokens to be exchanged.

Face painting always popular though volunteer intensive/time consuming. Also consider temporary tattoos.

Borrow a badge maker? Score a goal stall? Decorate biscuits with icing/cake decorations?

Baker ross good for ideas

Sell envelopes for £1.

Give people a plain envelope. They put £1 coin inside, seal it and write name on outside. All the envelopes go in a bin. End of the day draw one envelope. The winner gets half the envelopes, other half is instant profit.

Guess the name of the soft toy/doll

Guess the weight of a big fancy cake (donated from the local bakers of course)

At our summer fete the most popular stall/longest queue is football goal scoring. A group of yr6 boys take turns in goal; child pays money and gets 3 kicks at goal. Small sweetie for 1 goal, larger sweetie for 2 goals, prize for 3 goals.

In terms of asking local businesses - call round personally, or use personal contacts. Don't drop a letter through the post. Ask for specific prizes according to the business: i.e. a meal for two from a restaurant, a box of chocolates for the co-op, a bottle of wine from the off-licence, a day's pass for two from the gym, etc.. Asking for cash is less likely to be successful. If you are able to target businesses where school parents or relatives work, and ask them directly.

You lot are fantastic - keep them coming! I will be star new girl (with lots of pinched good ideas) at the next PTA meeting!!

By the way, while we're here - how do I generate interest from other mums in helping out and attending these meetings without being an old bag about it? I'm as guilty as the next for not getting involved as I work part-time and the meetings and events are always on a Friday when I work. Today was an odd day off so I thought great I can go. There were four other mums and considering there are 120 kids in each year (Reception, Yrs 1 and 2 - infants only), that's not a great turn out.

we had our meetings in the evening. When I was chair I would take along a couple of bottles of wine and water. I would limit the meeting to an hour and a half. (my excuse was salsa dancing)

do you have class reps? They attend on behalf of their classes. I found that the combination of alcohol and short meetings kept people attending.

btw I agree that letters shouldn't be dropped off. Should have been more specific. Taking a letter with you stops you from looking like someone after a personal freebie. It also enables you to ask for money (advertising) without having to say the words. Some people like to advertise and others don't.