As the co-president of my school’s PTO, I am always looking for new ways that we can raise money without having parents constantly pulling out their wallets. We call it “Painless Ways.” With our school getting less and less tax money, we are trying to be creative to ensure that our teachers still get what they need and our students have the resources they can use. Some of the things that we do include collecting Box Tops, recycling, and “trash for cash” (things like used printer cartridges).

Just this morning I learned that we could get our parents to donate My Coke Rewards points to the school and turn those points into things like balls for the playground and art supplies. I’ve never been one to collect the points because we just don’t drink enough pop in our house to save up. But imagine if everyone in our school was collecting the points and donating them in a huge chunk together?

I called up my PTO co-president and before I could even explain the whole program, she was excited. We went to the website and registered our school. A letter will be sent to our principal in the next 15 days confirming that the school wants to enroll. After that, we will add the link to My Coke Rewards from our PTO website and start publicizing it in our newsletter.

If you volunteer in a school, I really encourage to get creative in finding ways to raise money for your school. It’s not all about selling gift wrap door to door anymore. Engage your school community in fun and easy ways–taking advantage of corporate programs like My Coke Rewards whenever possible. I’m excited to get this up and running for Harrison Parkway Elementary!