When you hear PTA what do you think? Before Boo started school it conjured up memories of frantic bake sales when I was a child, and Mum heading out to race nights. When I attended my first PTA meeting I wasn’t expecting much and I was certain whatever I did find wouldn’t be for me; the reality couldn’t have been further from this.
What I discovered was an open, friendly bunch of parents who are committed to maximizing the opportunities available to our children at school. It was great to meet parents from such a diverse background who without the forum of the PTA I’d have been unlikely to meet as our children are spread amongst the school.
Fast-forward a year and I was elected co-chair in September and was charged with my first task: organizing the first casino fundraiser evening. 4 months later and I managed to pull off an evening of food, music, fundraising and fun casino… not to mention Prosecco and dancing!
We chose the local golf club, The Oaks to host our event and they were absolutely fantastic with helping nail down the details to last minute seating changes. The main event of the evening apart from the much anticipated raffle was the fun casino – we were super fortunate to have Alan from KG Entertainments who helped make the evening possible, thanks so much!
If you’re in two minds as to whether a fun casino would work at an event you’re organizing, take it from me, they’re the perfect party entertainment – it was the talk of the playground for weeks.
I was absolutely blown away by the great prizes we managed to secure for the raffle, including tickets to Sarah Millican at The Eventim Apollo, Afternoon Tea at a Handpicked Hotel, Blow Dry at Frank Di Lusso, Beauty Treatment at The Flutter Lounge plus lots more.
The main aim of the game was to raise lots of money for our PTA and between the fun casino and raffle we raised just shy of £1000 which was fantastic, massive thanks to everyone who came, supported, photocopied menus, or listened to my napkin colour choice dilemma.
PTAs are a fantastic way of making a real difference to your child’s school experience; I learnt that when it comes down to it, we have a lot more in common with the parents at the school gate than you might imagine – pretty sure everyone hit the dance floor when the old school garage came on! My only regret? Not taking ANY photos!
And the best part? We’ve just rebooked to do it all again next year.
