From Grey to Green: Shaking the Money Tree

The newly formed School Association fundraising team started work in September 2010. The first step was to set a target. Privately most of us thought we'd be doing well to make £5,000 in our first year so in an act of madness we set a goal of £10,000. There was a collective raised eyebrow when we published the total in our first newsletter. In true Blue Peter fashion we included a totaliser which began at a very discouraging zero...getting to the top of the totaliser was going to be like scaling Everest but it's amazing how much confidence you can have when you don't know what you're letting yourself in for.
Throughout the Autumn we focussed on two main events: the revamped Christmas Fair and our first fundraising venture, a new school calendar. A group of parents worked together to design and photograph all the classes in the school for a seasonally themed 16 page calendar with useful dates and sponsorship from local businesses. The end result, in full colour, was absolutely brilliant and all the more impressive as the photographs were taken in one day. Getting the finished article to school in time for the Fair was far from easy though. Thanks to the worst snowfall in Scotland for decades the calendar was stranded at the printer half way up the M8.
In fact, after months of effort and planning, it was unclear if the Fair would happen at all as the roads were treacherous and school closure was threatened.
We needn't have worried. On the day, the mums, dads, grannies and grandads and friends of Hermitage Park showed up in their droves and helped us make more than £3,000. We were also blown away by the generous donations of baking, crafts and produce, books and raffle prizes. The school was buzzing and had never felt so unashamedly Christmassy.
Better late than never, the calendar arrived, thanks to the heroic efforts of the printer who drove boxes of them through the snow, just as the fair was closing. Sales in the following week were brisk and totalled over £1,000. To say we were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. And as ever, the children were the stars of the show!