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Community Corner

Parent Talk: Family Fundraising for Kids' Activities

Fundraising season is year round for St. Michael-Albertville students, athletes, girl scouts and boy scouts. How do you decide who to support?

Our oldest, who's in seventh grade, had his baseball meeting on Monday afternoon and shortly afterwards informed us that he's selling salt. The water softener kind. He's ecstatic because if he sells 500 bags, he'll receive a $200 gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods. What's not to love about that, right?

Not that we enjoy bursting bubbles, but we had to this time. There's no way he'll be selling 500 bags of water softener salt. Because, simply, there's no way we're hauling and delivering 500 bags of water softener salt.

Another dad overheard our exchanges about this fundraiser, laughed and jokingly asked, "When is enough, enough, when it comes to the fundraising?"

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And he's got a point doesn't he?

There's the football players selling discount cards each fall, the Boy Scouts and their wreaths, who can forget the Girl Scouts and their cookies? Then there's the kindergarteners selling wrapping paper, the preschoolers selling pizza. We haven't even touched hockey yet. And that's just my neighborhood.

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So when is enough, enough? How do you decide what to buy and what to pass on?

We don't do the whole door-to-door thing over here mostly because I don't want to have to buy the wrapping paper the neighbor kid sells next year if they buy from my kid now. Also, with lots of kids in the same neighborhood and schools, it's likely they're all selling the same stuff anyway.

One of the fundraisers I like is the different sponsored nights at local restaurants like , Culvers, even , who donate a portion of the check to the organization. It seems to give families a reason to go out to eat and also support local organizations, whether it's the local MOMS club, the soccer club or a class trip. But even that can get to be much when you find written on your calendar multiple nights a month of dining out to raise funds for the groups you're part of.

How do you support local fundraisers?

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