Posts filed under ‘Things people do…’
Pig Kissing…And Other Free Fundraisers!
Hello there Parents,Teachers, PTAs and Student Counsels!
We know you’ve been tasked with an important and sometimes difficult job: Fundraising.
But how do you get kids excited about bringing in their recyclable electronics?
Don’t worry, Cartridges for Kids® has some great ideas that will get your students excited about recycling with little or no cost. All they take is some willing participants……. and perhaps a clean, friendly pig.
Kiss a Pig- Schools have used this incentive for decades. What kid wouldn’t want to see their Principal or Teacher smooch a pig?
All you need is the promise from a Principal that if the students bring in a certain number of items in an allotted time frame, they will kiss a pig in front of the entire school (Picture evidence of the event is a must).
Cost: Whatever the current pig-rental rate is. Unless one of your students already has one!
Duct Tape Prize- Each student gets an allotment of duct tape for every recyclable item brought in. Let the kids use their duct tape to secure their principle or another (preferably willing) teacher to a wall. The more items a student brings in, the more tape they get, ensuring no one gets sent to the principal’s office for at least as long as it takes him/her to break free….
Cost: Several rolls of Duct Tape (go name brand – in our experience the cheap stuff doesn’t stick to school walls!).
Hair is free and grows back (usually)- Having a hard time finding a pig in your city? Well this fundraiser involves the same principle (and Principal). If the students bring in a certain amount of items the Principal or teacher agrees to shave or dye their hair a ridiculous color.
Cost: Razor/ one box of semi-permanent hot pink hair dye.
There’s a plethora of ideas to choose from and all it takes is a principal or teacher with an adventurous side and a sense of humor! From putting on a grass skirt and dancing the Hula to offering a “Get out of Detention Free” card to a winning student, CFK schools all over the country have come up with awesome and hilarious fundraising incentives that cost little or no money! You don’t have to pay for a pizza party or buy your students prizes to get them excited about recycling!
We want to hear about your fundraising ideas! What did your school do to get motivated about recycling? Send your ideas, stories and pictures of any pig-kissing or hula dancing to:
We may even put your ideas on our blog!
America Recycles Day is Almost Here!
Did you know America has a National Recycling Day?
Since 1997, communities across the country have come together on November 15th to celebrate what can happen if we all work together to make recycling bigger and better in the United States. Recycling events large and small are popping up all over the country. Some are being organized by companies like Waste Management, Johnson& Johnson and Pepsico, but others are being put together by people and communities who are just as excited to help further the recycling cause.
Cartridges for Kids® (CFK) is excited to get involved in this spectacular day, and we want you to get involved too! Visit Americarecyclesday. org to find out more about events being hosted in your area, or get help hosting your own event. Sign the Recycling pledge and find some great tips and toolkits to help make recycling easy and fun in your school and community!
Now that you know about this terrific cause, how about getting involved while earning cash for your school/organization? Here’s where CFK comes in!
Most recycling events focus on paper, plastic and glass products. While we know how important these things are to recycle, what about the items that you can’t just drop in a green recycle bin and place on your sidewalk? With the increasing amout of technology in our world, electronics recycling or eCycling, is more important that ever- and CFK is an expert on the subject! We want to support America Recycles Day by spreading the word that ecycling is just as important as recycling.
We know you’ve been working hard getting the word out about our program and collecting cellphones and cartridges galore for us to recycle, but what if we told you we know how to help you be even MORE successful?
We’re talking about a collection drive! America Recycles Day is a great opportunity for you to get the word out in your school and community about your involvement with Cartridges for Kids and a CFK collection drive is the perfect way to do it.
The best part? It’s really easy! A drive can be as big or as small as you want it to be and CFK will provide the materials to get you started. Just click here to order everything you need to kick-off a cellphone and/or cartridge collection drive at your school. Just be sure to order your materials soon- we want you to be able to have your drive all planned out in time for America Recycles Day on November 15th.
If you aren’t sure how to promote your Collection Drive, visit Ways to Grow to find tons of great ideas and templates including our most popular project- the Recycle Tree.
We want to hear from you too! Do you have an awesome new idea about how to promote ecycling at your school? Is your Recycle Tree brag-worthy? Send us your ideas and pictures to cfkprogram@wm.com with the subject line “Our school loves CFK!” and we might post them here. We always love to hear about your success and creativity!
Good luck with your Collection Drives and we look forward to hearing from you!
You could be our next Featured Recycler!
Check out our latest Featured Recycler story…HERE!
We’ve told you about Gull Lake Middle School once before, but we thought we’d tell you again because it’s just so great.
So you wanna be our next Featured Recycler? Tell us your story. Email us (contact [at] cfktoday [dot] com), call (800.420.0235) or fill out our online contact form. We want to hear about what YOU’RE doing. Then we’ll spread it around like hot gossip. Because everyone should know about recycling.
Gull Lake Spreads the Green
When we heard about what Kimberly and her team at Gull Lake Middle School did to celebrate their recycling contest, we had to share it with you!
They held a six-week contest in April and May, and raised over $250! They collected ALL KINDS of items: cell phones, ink and laser cartridges, PDAs, video games, DVDs, digital cameras, iPods, and laptops. And how did they celebrate? Look here:
Yep! They used some of the proceeds from their contest to plant an evergreen forest!
This little guy is just one of the 138 evergreen trees that Gull Lake planted this spring. We can’t wait to see how they look all grown up!
Big kudos to Gull Lake for spreading the green–not only by recycling, but by planting trees as well. We love to see things like this! So, if you or your group wants to share your story with us, drop us a line (800.420.0235 or contact@cfktoday.com).
Let’s give Kimberly and everyone at Gull Lake Middle School a GREAT BIG PAT ON THE BACK!
Digital Wish and Pepsi Refresh: working together to give $250,000 to schools!
Digital Wish (the group that partners with us on the Recycle Forward campaign) needs your votes to help over 500 classrooms with technology grants!
THE LOW DOWN:
Digital Wish is participating in the Pepsi Refresh Project. If they generate the most votes in the month of September and finish as one of the top two $250,000 awardees (www.refresheverything.com/digitalwish), Digital Wish will use the proceeds to award over 500 classrooms with technology grants. The three teachers who garner the most votes throughout the month of September will receive $10,000 grants for their classrooms. The four teachers with the next highest amount of votes will receive $5,000 grants. After that, 100 teachers will receive $500 grants, and 400 more educators will receive $250. These grants can be used to purchase new technology from Digital Wish’s extensive online catalog.
HOW TO HELP:
Visit the Digital Wish homepage at www.digitalwish.org to find your favorite teacher and help them win a portion of the proceeds by clicking on the Pepsi Refresh button from their profile. One vote is allowed per day, so return often to help Digital Wish and your favorite classroom earn new technology!
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:
According to Digital Wish’s Founder and Executive Director Heather Chirtea, “Every classroom teacher has a huge network of parents and students who care about technology. If even a handful of people from those networks vote, Digital Wish will be able to enhance learning for thousands of students nationwide. These grants will spark a wave of technological upgrades and inspire teachers to refresh their curriculum.”
Digital Wish hopes back-to-school excitement will fuel their campaign with fresh energy and propel them to victory. “We couldn’t have asked for a better time to be campaigning for this project than right now,” said Chirtea. “This could start the school year off right for many classrooms that suffer from a shortfall of new technology.”
At CFK, we like to hear about groups who are doing good things for education. We’re proud to work with Digital Wish on Recycle Forward, and we’re proud of their efforts with the Pepsi Refresh Project. Click here to turn recyclable electronics into new technology for your classroom.
Back to School Inspiration
Setting up a table at Back to School Night to announce your recycling is a wonderful way to get the word out to parents and staff! Here’s some pictures of Back to School tables, just to give you some inspiration. Click here or here for more info on Back to School with CFK.
Don’t just take our word for it…
Our participants are speaking out about how CFK is working for them, and for that, we want to say thanks!
We think we have the best recyclers in the whole wide world, and not just because they say nice things about us.
Because they’re working hard to make this world a better place.
We recently added some of their happy quotes to our website, check out some of them here:
“We have used the Cartridges for Kids program for several years to help support our D.A.R.E. program. In tough economic times, not everyone has an extra dollar to donate but most people have unused recyclable items they can give to help a great cause. Cartridges for Kids has a helpful staff and easy to use website that will help you build a great fund raising program.”
–Deputy Mary Woerner
“I have been involved with the Cartridges for Kids program for several years and I am greatly impressed. The company is doing a great service for the community and the environment by recycling used ink cartridges. The CFK representative I work with is always there to answer my questions and works diligently to expedite my shipments. CFK sets and meets very high standards, and their staff is professional. Bravo.”
–Bill Draheim
“Cartridges for Kids is an amazing recycling program for private and public educational institutions. After working with them for over eight years, I can honestly say that everything about CFK is customer oriented. This is the free-est easy money I have ever earned for my students!!!!!
–Beth Henderson
“Cartridges for Kids is a no-brainer fund raiser for schools. Our contests really get kids excited about recycling and the CFK staff make it all very easy! We raised over $1000 in one school year!“
–Allison Radcliffe
CFK wants to keep on spreadin’ the love. If you’re interested in starting a money-making, smile-inducing, green-spreading recycling fundraiser at your school or organization, email us (contact (at) cfktoday (dot) com), call us (800-420-0235), or go to our website. You can get more info, sign your school up, watch some sweet recycling videos, see what we recycle and how much we pay for items, get free materials, and more.
**Oh, also–win $50 free and clear. Click here for more info.**
Businesses Need Green Too.
…. just signed a 20-year deal to buy power from an Iowa wind farm in an effort to cut pollution.
Kudos to you, Google, for being part of the corporate eco-revolution.
Going green doesn’t have to just be for big companies who can afford carbon offsets, wind power, and eco-friendly packaging. Businesses everywhere can take steps to help the environment and their community. Take these for example:
- Use energy-efficient lightbulbs in your offices. They save on electricity costs and last longer than regular incandescent light bulbs.
- Eliminate paper plates and plastic utensils in your break room. Stock up on dishes and silverware from your local thrift store, and re-use!
- Did you know that the average U.S. office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year? Less than half of all office paper is recycled, and come on people, 87% of us have access to paper recycling programs. Only print when necessary, and recycle every sheet you don’t need!
- Purchase refurbished ink cartridges instead of new. This saves money and reuses ink cartridges that would normally go to the landfill. To get a free shipping label to turn in your empty ink cartridges for refurbishing, click here.
- Recycle everything you can! Click here to get set up to recycle used cell phones, laptops, and other equipment your business uses and replaces.
It’s free, and you can choose to support a local charity or school with the value of your recyclables. Free+Recycling+Charitable Donation+Tax-Deductible=Great combination!
Are you a school or non-profit that wants to get businesses to recycle on your behalf? Click here to learn how.
Spring Recycling Trees!
Check out what Maplebrook Elementary did to celebrate Earth Day:
And Woodlawn Elementary:
These schools used their recycling trees to grow their earnings this Spring!
Click here for a template and directions on how you can grow a Recycling Tree at your organization!
Way to go Maplebrook and Woodlawn!
Keepin’ Your Town Beautiful
From March through May, the folks over at Keep America Beautiful run the Great American Cleanup Campaign.
Last year, volunteers spent more than 5.2 million hours to clean and beautify more than 32,000 communities nationwide. They combed the coastlines to pick up litter, planted trees, and held educational programs and recycling collections.
You too can be a part of this fantastic season; Spring cleaning doesn’t just have to be for closets and kitchens!
Get your organization together and hold your own recycling collection.
CFK will provide:
- flyers, posters, collection box
- FREE shipping labels
- a check for the CA$H value of your items
- $50 extra, if you meet our collection drive goal!
- promotional and educational ideas to supplement your drive
Be a part of this year’s spring cleanup, because way too many electronics are going to landfills!
Click here for more info on Keep America Beautiful and the Great American Cleanup.
Click here for info on CFK, and starting your own recycling collection drive.
