by Ann Hinds

Created on: November 22, 2009

Whether the school is raising fund for field trips or other educational activities, many sell soda and water at school functions to raise money. Some schools also stock the teachers lounge with reduced prices for the staff. The beverages are sold at school events like math night, movie night or the fall festival. Since it is not cost effective to buy soda and water, a soda drive helps build the inventory. Some beverages are donated by local businesses but it never seems to be quite enough. A soda drive twice a year fills that gap.

At the beginning of the school year, set up a week for the soda drive. With the approval of the school staff, create flyers to send home with the children. Have it posted on the school marquee. If the school has an on-call system that notified parent by phone of the weekly events, have the principal mention it too. Create a contest for the classroom that brings in the most cans and bottles. Make sure that the contest is mentioned in the flyer.

The week of the soda drive, send home another reminder. In the flyer, notify parents to deliver the beverages to the classroom although some parents will take them directly to the school office. At the end of the week, have the parent volunteers collect the soda and water from each classroom. Do not forget to check with the office for soda and water that was delivered there. The staff will have tagged the donations with the name of the student and the classroom. Count and total the amount of bottles and cans from each classroom. Each one counts.

Once the volunteers have totaled the counts, notify the winning classroom. Have the staff announce the winning classroom over the intercom so all the children know that the contest is over. The winning teacher will decide what type of reward the children will receive. The most popular choice is a pizza lunch but the teachers are aware of their children with specific needs that they need to work around. The parent organization will be responsible for the setting up the party and pay for it.

Towards spring, setup another soda drive. Again, create a contest for the classroom that brings in the most. A soda drive is an effective way to provide beverages to sell at school functions, make money and involve the whole school in the process.

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