Whether you're the Book Fair chair, the librarian, or PTA leaders, chances are coordinating parent volunteers to pitch in at the Book Fair is on your to-do list. Save time and stress less coordinating this year's Book Fair volunteers with free online sign-ups with reminders!
It's so easy to set up online Book Fair volunteer sign-ups in minutes with quick, intuitive scheduling tools from VolunteerSpot. Plan for parent volunteers to help with:
Organizers share the sign-up link with parents via email, social media, Remind, etc. Parents sign up 24/7 from any device, anywhere! eCalendar sycning, spot swapping, and automated reminders keep everyone on track (i.e., no more no-shows!).
That's not all! Volunteer coordinators can customize the Book Fair sign-ups with background themes, the school logo and more! Start planning
What’s enough water really . . . enough to quench your little one’s thirst? Enough to hold a ‘mom’ over between jetting from work to the school pick up line to the house? We have all been told it’s 8 whole cups a day, and according to a recent Nestlé®Pure Life®survey*, moms and kids aren’t getting near enough water for a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
Survey results showed that 54% of all school-aged children are inadequately hydrated. This shockingly high number alarmed Nestle® Pure Life®, and they’re creating efforts to reduce it. Nestlé® Pure Life® has committed to provide nearly one million 8 ounce servings of water to kids this school year through After-School All-Stars. Additionally, they’re helping consumers keep their own families hydrated with information and tips on PureLifeRippleEffect.com.
Truth of the matter is, it’s hard! Work schedules, school commitments, and packed calendars leave busy moms and kids grabbing snacks and drinks that are convenient and won’t cause a fuss – that can mean getting enough water can take a backseat.
Moms, you are not alone! Follow these 3 MUSTS for bringing water and hydration to the forefront of your family’s healthy lifestyle:
1. Make drinking water a habit: The Nestlé® Pure Life® survey revealed that reminders to drinkwater are necessary to ensure that kids (and moms) get enough. A whopping 33% of kids say they find it hard to remember to drink water without reminders while less than half (48%) of moms regularly remind their child to drink water. This disparity highlights a real need for both mom and kid to make a habit of drinking water more regularly. Some solutions? Try:
Drinking a cup at key times during the day: At breakfast, at afternoon snack afterschool, with dinner and before bed are easy times to remember to drink one full glass of water each.
Setting reminders on your phone: A simple alert or reminder on your eCalendar or smartphone can give busy moms that gentle nudge they need to drink water regularly.
Make a checklist: What better way to succeed at building a water-drinking habit than to check off your water-break checklist during the day! Gamify the experience for kids with rewards like extra time to play outside or getting to help cook dinner.
2. Encourage kids to CHOOSE water over other beverages: Whether it’s at soccer practice or out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa, the choice to drink water over a sugary sports drink or soda can be a tough one for kids. The Nestlé® Pure Life® found that:
Kids who drink less than 4 glasses of water a day are more likely to request soda, juice, and sports drinks (76%)
25% of kids surveyed age 6-12 choose soda as their preferred drink, while 23% choose water.
Kids are most likely to choose a drink other than water at restaurants (54% soda) and celebrations (58% soda).
The choice to drink water is a choice to affect a healthy lifestyle and future healthy choices. Encouraging kids to drink water can include things like a ‘water first’ policy when eating out, asking other caretakers and grandparents to enforce healthy water-drinking habits, and teaching kids about why their choice of water makes them healthier (and happier!).
3. Find creative ways to get kids to drink water: 38% of moms surveyed said that drinking water is one of the biggest “healthy habit” struggles they have with their kids - even more than struggles like “eat your fruit” (29%), “get enough exercise” (23%), and “eat your breakfast” (19%). With this in mind,
Drink out of bottles: The Nestlé® Pure Life® survey found that 84% of moms say bottled water is a convenient way to ensure their child is drinking water. Extra bottles in the car and pantry are a great way to
Get creative: Add fun straws to your child’s glass of water or seek out water bottle packaging with relevant graphics and characters that appeal to your child and can encourage them to drink more water.
Pack a water-filled lunch: A majority of kids surveyed said they prefer a homemade lunch (57%) over a school bought lunch. This preference for packed lunches offers a key hydration opportunity for moms – packing a bottle of water can help increase a child’s water intake for the day
Use hashtag #pureliferippleeffect on social media and join Nestle on facebook and Instagram.
*Nestlé®Pure Life® conducted an online survey in June 2015 of 1,077 moms of kids ages 6-12 overall, including 254 Hispanic moms of kids ages 6-12. 1,077 kids ages 6-12 from the same household were also surveyed, including 254 Hispanic kids ages 6-12.
Cheers to the Williams Syndrome Association for using VolunteerSpot to help raise awareness.
The Williams Syndrome Association supports those affected by creating a friendly environment to help raise funds and awareness about Williams Syndrome. In May 2015, the organization held a 5K marathon in efforts of bring attention to the cause with a little help from VolunteerSpot.
Please tell us about your big event, your organization and your volunteer needs.
We organized a 5K Trail Run/Walk and Picnic in support of Williams Syndrome Awareness Month in May at Bond Park in Cary, NC. It was a huge success! We had about 120 attendees and utilized VolunteerSpot for all our volunteer and food sign-ups. The website was very easy to use helped keep us updated. VolunteerSpot worked GREAT!!!
Explain how you use VolunteerSpot to coordinate these volunteers.
We set up a sign-up page with not only helper requests but also specific food items needed for the picnic based on the number of projected attendees.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
A previous coordinator suggested we VolunteerSpot for this event.
What’s one piece of advice you have for others organizing large events?
Start early! Also, look for company sponsors and verify attendance numbers ahead of time.
What else would you like our readers to know about your organization or volunteering?
Be on the lookout for a Williams Syndrome Awareness activity in your area each May.
We salute the Williams Syndrome Association and all the other volunteers making a difference in their communities. Check out how VolunteerSpot’s Volunteer Software can save you time and stress and boost parent involvement in your school. Take a tour today!
Team VolunteerSpot is a big fan of anything that saves time, lets a person pitch in or sign up from their smartphone, and benefits schools and communities. Kellogg’s Family Rewards Program does all that – and more. Check out our 5 favorite things about KFR and get started earning for your school today!
1. Get Rewarded: Just for joining Kellogg’s Family Rewards you can earn up to 500 bonus points on the spot! Plus, get points every time you buy Kellogg’s products your family already loves. Sign up and join today, it’s easy!
2. Adding a loyalty card: This great new feature from Kellogg’s Family Rewards makes it so EASY to earn cash for your child’s school. Simply connect a retailer loyalty card or membership to your KFR account and start earning whenever you shop.
3. Uploading receipts: Kellogg’s Family Rewards knows no two families are exactly alike, and that’s why they offer many ways for you to upload receipts for points – simply scan or take a picture of a participating receipt and upload from your smartphone, desktop, or text it!
4. Redeeming for your favorite school or cause: It’s easy to earn rewards for your family like coupons, gift cards, sweepstakes, kids activities, and so much more – but Kellogg’s Family Rewards also lets members donate their points to their school or charity of choice. This means real cash dollars for your child’s school – awesome! Learn more
5. Special savings & offers: As if all that wasn’t enough, KFR members have access to exclusive coupons, sweepstakes and special offers from participating Kellogg’s brands. This means savings for your family and more happy kids!
Where do school parents really like to volunteer? What fundraisers are favorites of school families? VolunteerSpot asked these questions and more and got some surprising answers! Check it out in our INFOGRAPHIC below and click here for more information.
With tips on boosting fundraising turnout & profits as well as new, creative approaches to overcoming the hurdles that prevent parents from volunteering in school, this INFOGRAPHIC is a must-share with your friends and school community.
The critical ingredient for a successful fall festival or carnival is hands down volunteer support. From set-up to take down, ticket sales to concessions and staffing all the carnival booths and games, school and church carnival volunteers are a MUST for pulling off such a big event. So what if instead of a crumpled note sent home in a child's backpack, your carnival volunteer sign-up looked like this:
It's so EASY to boost parent involvement and save time this year with free online carnival sign-up sheets with reminders. Volunteer coordinators, carnival chairs, and school staff can quickly set up a schedule of fall carnival volunteer needs - intuitive scheduling tools plus Auto-Fill and Quick List Builder features make it a snap. Bonus: Organizers can even add custom fall themes and the school logo to the sign-up!
Parents click the sign-up link wherever the school posts it (on the volunteer webpage, in an eNewsletter, on social media, etc), and sign up from their computer or smartphone anytime, anywhere. No password needed!
Spend more time on the FUN stuff like building carnival games and decorations, planning new and interesting food stations and getting the word out - and LESS time organizing and reminding volunteers. VolunteerSpot captures all the volunteer information for you, updates the schedule real-time, and eCalendar sync and automated reminders keep everyone on track! Start Planning
Pledge to do GOOD on 9/11 with acts of service and kindness that reflect the spirit and honor the legacy of all the victims and their families from 9/11.
Check out our top resources for service project ideas & acts of kindness:
Collect Contributions and Raise Money for Your School Online!
Remember this one school's humorous take on an Alternative Fundraiser (No-Hassle Fundraiser)?
While event and product fundraisers DO help many schools engage families, build community and raise money, many parents agreed they would rather just contribute the money to begin with and avoid the door-to-door wrapping paper sale or staying up late baking for another sale.
VolunteerSpot already makes it easy for schools to save time and boost parent involvement with free online volunteer & participant sign-up sheets, and now, school-parent groups can apply the same streamlined coordination to alternative fundraising! The NEW Contributions Sign-Ups make it easy for PTA's and PTO's to set up secure online forms for collecting money, dues, and fundraising dollars. Learn more
Instead of keeping track of multiple cash boxes, envelopes and crumpled letters sent home in stuffed backpacks, school-parent groups can send out ONE sign-up link to the entire school (or post on social media, the school website, etc) and collect money and parent information securely (and quickly). Parents click the sign-up link on their computer or smartphone and can make their contribution within minutes, easy!
Alternative Fundraisers can provide a more relaxed approach to school fundraising that still helps parent groups meet their goals, but also focus more time and energy on community building events and creative programming. It's easy (and free) to get started with online Contributions Sign-Ups from VolunteerSpot - your school parents will thank you! Collect Money Now
Cheers to the University Health System of San Antonio
The University Health System of San Antonio is a top-ranked teaching hospital that uses VolunteerSpot to organize volunteers for different community outreach events and services. Find out how they use VolunteerSpot to make their processes much smoother.
Tell us about your role as a volunteer leader.
The Volunteer Services director role is responsible of finding new ways to facilitate the volunteer on-boarding process. As you can imagine, the volunteer opportunities and process needs to be easy to access from any device.
How do you use VolunteerSpot to coordinate your volunteers?
We use VolunteerSpot to schedule potential volunteers for interviews, health screenings and orientations. The VolunteerSpot link is embedded into our hospital volunteer communication system. Volunteers receive the email and simply click on the VolunteerSpot embedded link to schedule an appointment. We like how it sends our volunteers reminders and has the ability to cancel or reschedule appointments.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
As we research different online tools, VolunteerSpot was easy to learn, accessible to different platforms volunteers use and affordable. We have also introduced VolunteerSpot to our Pediatric Child Life Specialist to schedule events.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know about your volunteering program?
University Health System is a nationally recognized teaching hospital and network of outpatient healthcare centers, owned by the people of Bexar County and ranked “Best Hospital in San Antonio,” and No. 6 in Texas, by U.S. News & World Report.
University Health System is committed to delivering patient-centered, culturally competent and high-quality healthcare for adults and children, based on a strong foundation of outcome‐based research and innovative teaching. University Hospital is the premier Level I Trauma Center for South Texas and the Health System is the region’s only healthcare organization to earn Magnet designation – the Gold Standard in patient care – from the American Nurses Association. Learn more at UniversityHealthSystem.com.
We salute Joan and all the other teachers and volunteers making a difference in their communities. Check out how VolunteerSpot’s Volunteer Software can save you time and stress and boost parent involvement in your school. Take a tour today!
Looking for an easy (and sweet) way to raise money for your school or nonprofit this fall? Check out the See's Candies Flash Fundraiser Sweepstakes today, ENTER HERE!
4 lucky winners will receive the following product from See's Candies to sell at 100% profit:
· Lollypops (500): 250 each of Butterscotch and Chocolate
· Candy Bars (288): 144 each of Milk Chocolate and Milk Chocolate w/ Toffee Nuggets
· Reusable Totes (50): Perfect for transporting candy
· Collection Envelopes (50): Hand them to all your helpers
· See’s Banner (1): To use at your fundraising event
· See’s Candy Dish (1): Great gift for an outstanding volunteer or coordinator!
Raise up to $1,000 for your child's school, team, Scout troop or your faith group or local non-profit - it's so easy to enter. Spread the word too so your favorite organization has more chances to win! ENTER NOW, ends 9/15/15.
