Why Are School Catalog Fundraisers a Thing?

[@atlababe]

As a low-income kid, these things were the worst. It seemed like the school almost penalized those of us who didn’t (couldn’t) participate or didn’t reach the goals. Yes, all of us “poor kids” WERE stuck in the classroom doing busy work during these fun prize days. And yes, it was humiliating & defeating.

[@justanotherclaud]

This SO MUCH. 💔 And the catalogs seemed so enticing so I was really sad

[@straawberryfieldsforever]

My school realized this and we basically would win nothing for participating.I was a child with social anxiety and obviously never took place in that and I'm glad my school never tried to shame me for it

[@Oksowhat111]

I was poor n I liked it lol

[@texasred1000]

Nah you didn’t hustle hard enough

[@kaishawna3753]

@@texasred1000 Apparently you don’t understand that there were kids like myself who literally couldn’t participate in those fundraisers and couldn’t hide my disappointment when others won. It was basically making kids compete against each other.

[@phantompig5327]

Definitely the strangest part of these is how they would hold assemblies about the dangers of talking to strange adults, and then a week later have an assembly encouraging us to go to strangers' homes to solicit overpriced garbage.

[@placeholderdoe]

Don’t talk to strangers unless you can make me money kid

[@xjunkxyrdxdog89]

In first grade a wildlife guy came to show us a bunch of animals petting zoo style. He brought out one of those giant but docile yellow boas that people keep as pets. In second grade an astronomer guy came to our elementary school to show us the "stars" in a giant portable planetarium... So the school that said don't talk to strangers also said "hey go in this dark tent and pet that guy's snake." 🤔

[@villageronps5317]

😊😅😮😮😢🎉😂😂🎉😢😮😅😅😅😊😊😊😊😅😊😅😢

[@morganorwhatever]

In Canada they used to encourage us not to go door-to-door or sell to strangers so they couldn’t be held liable if we were kidnapped

[@douglasgriffiths3534]

The "yellow boa" was probably an albino Burmese python. Nice pets, but can be dangerous when they get really big. I had one who was over 10 feet long at the age of 9 months. I donated him to the zoo, where he lived for 29 years. (Jan Griffiths).@@xjunkxyrdxdog89

[@ivysaurus]

I remember bringing the catalogue home to my mom, her chucking it straight in the trash, and then taking me to the dollar store to get one of the prizes that probably would’ve taken me 80 hours of brutal labor to achieve.

[@kayakat1869]

Iconic.

[@alexandriaclary2800]

Lol honestly tha sounds exactly like somethin my own mom would do wether it's at the dollar store, target, Walmart or any grocery store 2 be honest

[@SilvarusLupus]

Your mom is an icon

[@eulyc.959]

Your mom is an icon and a legend 🤣 I love that

[@Pirategod23]

I’m using this

[@EddVCR]

As an immigrant kid from Japan, the school using kids as salespeople seemed so weird and felt wrong, even as a little child. Looking back, it was the most American thing ever; fostering competitiveness, rewarding kids who made the most money and withholding rewards from kids who didn’t, and glorifying money. It still feels weird, and I’m glad to learn that there are Americans who feel the same way.

[@douglasgriffiths3534]

I definitely feel the same way. The world is not a safe place. And teaching greed to kids. I chose not to participate in school fundraisers that involved door to door selling. It didn't feel right to me either. (Jan Griffiths).

[@byronlee991017]

I'm also an immigrant kid, from Hong Kong. I was lucky to grow up in socal with more immigrant asian kids and we all felt the same way as well

[@humbughumbughumbug]

As a fellow Asian American, I also abhor these fundraising programs. However what I hate more is the anticompetitive contracts these fundraisers force unto the schools where parents are not allowed to donate directly in lieu of fundraising and the extreme false pretense that "this will socialize your children properly." Taking away the freedom to be voluntarily charitable is the opposite of America.

[@HighAsHeckPriestess]

I'm glad my parents never let me participate

[@brianahhildebrand925]

I have a confession to make... I somehow lost a family's address who had ordered from a fundraiser that I had walked door to door to sell for. They ordered, like, $70 worth of stuff, and the lady that I spoke to, who ended up purchasing from the catalog, was incredibly kind and generous. I've held onto this for almost half of my 23 years on this Earth and it still weighs on me. I think about it a couple of times each year and still feel incredibly guilty about it. I remember feeling so sad that I couldn't make it right by the family. But, I neglected to tell the school that I had forgotten their address out of fear of serious repercussions. So I told no one. And no one from the school let on that they had known about it. So I have no idea if the family was refunded. I ended up having to throw away their order after holding onto it for a while, thinking that any day soon, the staff at my school would be coming to me and inquiring about what happened with the family's order. And that I would hand the order to the staff and then they would take care of it from there. But it didn't turn out that way, and I ended up having to throw the order away. As much as this really was my fault for being irresponsible and absent-minded, it really puts into perspective how strange it was to put the responsibility on literal children in the first place.

[@jennatandy6272]

I’m glad you were able to get that off of your chest. I’m proud of you.

[@misspinkpunkykat]

The school "lost" a lot of the things people ordered from me too.

[@TomikaKelly]

Let it go. The buyer doesn't remember that $70 and neither should you.

[@kayakat1869]

Don't feel bad. These companies shouldn't target kids to sell their crap.

[@alexandriaclary2800]

Honestly I kinda relate 2 ur story I mean the lady i spoke 2 when I did my middle school chorus trip fundraiser I wrote down her address but it wasn't tha I lost it it was tha the numbers on her mail box were missin so we actually had a hard time tryin 2 deliver the order but luckily we eventually were able 2 get it 2 her

[@HonkYeahArson]

To my poor grandma: I'm very sorry for forcing you to buy those cheap chocolates just so I could get the rainbow bouncy ball

[@trashcatlinol]

So, I can't speak for your grandma, but I know a guy in my town would buy a single pack of beef sticks from every kid who knocked on his door. He loved the things. It was pure love for things, too. He was a neighbor on our street, and I remember seeing him out on his front porch, eating beef sticks and drinking; watching traffic and the neighbors watching traffic, like everyone else XD I was the kind kid who couldn't say no, but also loved to listen to people talk. I often walked away with a single sale from people who already bought from their grandkids, which I feel really manipulative about now, if I wasn't sincere in enjoying the time, even listening to a few again when I had to deliver. I never pushed a sale for my time, and readily took no for an answer, even after an hour of having my ear chatted off XDD Ah, the days and communities where you could send your kiddo out alone to hawk overpriced crap... At least one guy liked it. I appreciate our school sells branded crap from chains that don't exist out here. Had an aunt who worked at Little Caesars. She would bring home what they called a ''Salada'' : a pizza with garlic butter sauce instead of red, bacon, pineapple (can be omitted. It was a must in our house), cheese; bake; top with fresh lettuce and ranch. Got a bunch of crazy bread from a kid and cook up my own now. Starting to understand my neighbor's deal to get his fix XD

[@hilariousskullnamedcatzo647]

*How about you tell her in person*

[@ksz1028]

i gave them to my dog

[@mlsturdivant86]

@@hilariousskullnamedcatzo647 maybe she’s dead you never know

[@joerotter2873]

@@trashcatlinol So he was like the chocolate dude on spongebob lmao

[@sarahubbell1479]

And we wonder why multi level marketing is such a prevalent thing...

[@asmrtpop2676]

Most kids did not have success with these unless their parents had a LOT of peers in a social network or they had rich parents who just bought a ton, so not sure how that translates to MLM. MLM reminds me of this so it tells me MLM = failure lol.

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

@@asmrtpop2676 its due to the fact that its selling product door to door honesty the chocolate drives were way better

[@nativetribeurbanmedia]

You are so right

[@nativetribeurbanmedia]

@@asmrtpop2676 I never got more than a pencil sharpener

[@TheBluestflamingos]

​@@asmrtpop2676that sounds exactly like an MLM, actually. Begging everyone you can to buy some overpriced garbage and guilt-tripping people who see through it is the main mechanic of an MLM, from the bottom of the pyramid. MLMs don't see product, they sell the idea of a lavish lifestyle where you can work flexible hours, be your own boss, and buy a Tesla.

[@dylanking7403]

My daughter is in kindergarten and this year they just sent us a link letting us know if we knew people who wanted to donate to the school, the kids would get prizes for raising a certain amount. I sent the link to her grandparents and she got a silly little drone. So much easier than what I remember doing in school.

[@squidward9747]

A DRONE???

[@madysonandres9571]

@@squidward9747 I am just as surprised as you are.

[@dylanking7403]

@@squidward9747 lol it’s not anything fancy. Just a little kids toy

[@msicat]

lol recently my school had a fundraiser similar to this, parents could pledge a certain amount of money per mile a kid ran, so we all got an hour or so that day to run. i ended up pulling a good amount of money for my grade and got a camera, needless to say, they did not skimp on prizes lol

[@wonieism]

that's what I did in 5th grade. it was pretty cool

[@PastelOddity]

I have ADHD and autism, but I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 21, so remembering things like turning in the money envelope on time, approaching strangers to sell, etc. were just not things I could do without reminders or help. And it became REALLY stressful because my mom was obsessed with me being the “best salesperson” for some reason, and I was juggling hundreds of dollars and dozens of names and addresses at once, and if I asked for help, my mom would say “a REAL salesperson would problem solve.” Well, to no one’s surprise, I missed the deadline to turn in the money, just totally forgot. When my mom found out, she made me write an apology letter with every “refund” where I told them I’m “not capable of being a salesperson, and I’m sorry for deceiving them”. She reminded me ALL day how I COULD have been “the best”, but I’m not worth the title. And while driving to drop off one of them, my mom turned to me and said (and I’ll never forget it): “If I had the choice, you wouldn’t be my daughter. You were a mistake. I shouldn’t have to have your pathetic face associated with my family.” All that to say, public schools DRASTICALLY underestimate how many kids are being abused at home, and how something like these fundraisers could affect those kids.

[@placeholderdoe]

A phooey another autistic person that’s sick. Yeah I get how that situation could be sickeningly stressful. Sorry you experienced it

[@carolrickroll767]

Damn.. Are You Okay Now?🙁

[@WahooYahoo]

What the fuck 💀 I hope you’re doing better now holy shit -

[@-K_J-]

Wow. I hope she gets exactly what she deserves for that kind of sick behavior.

[@lyndza1989]

tell her the nursing homes only days away

[@weeks2580]

These companies aren't always to be trusted. One year my two brothers worked together to sell a LOT of items, enough that they were supposed to win a cell phone. But I guess the fundraising company wasn't expecting anyone to actually sell that much. So instead they received two walkie talkies. That's not quite the same thing...

[@AiLoveAidoru]

If I were the parent in that situation, I would’ve immediately went to the authorities with the walkie talkies and the flyers. That’s straight up a scam.

[@mustardjelly6554]

I was promised an iPod Touch for selling a certain amount of candy bars. I received a cheap Walmart MP3 player that broke in under 3 months. Over 10 years later and I’m still pissed about it.

[@TheSadster]

​@@mustardjelly6554 If I was in your situation, I would be pissed too.

[@Mewtwo_150]

​@@AiLoveAidoru If you actually do that and win a court case, the company will be forced to give you what you were promised. In this case, 2 new phones

[@violetm8110]

The year we did magazine subscriptions, my family ordered like four ourselves - they were so discounted and it was like every topic under the sun! ….they never showed up. I think that one is a scam…

[@dakotasillyman5495]

A couple things that I realized about these fundraisers too was that they; 1. were basically just a competition to see who's parents had the most wealthy friends/relatives who would be willing to buy a bunch of overpriced stuff and 2. should never have been necessary, if we would properly fund our public school system in the first place we wouldn't have to turn 2nd graders into little sales people just for the chance at new library books.

[@augustoof13]

We really don’t fund our school system enough, do we? My grandparents grumble about their taxes (I get it, it sucks,) and i think about that. It seems like a lot of the money goes to PE stuff (never have liked PE, but I get it’s nessasary.) but it seems like everything goes to PE and the teachers have to buy everything for themselves. I always have loved my teachers, I fear them because of my messed up head but I still respect them, because they have to deal with so much BS.

[@cilantrho]

companies that run fundraising corps lobby politicians to keep schools underfunded and keep taxes in other places so they can keep their companies in business by making kids sell cookie dough for a sticky hand so the school can afford to get exterminators

[@pixiehellpup1579]

America: 0h? The schools are being smart and finding ways of raising money? That's good! That means we shouldn't funnel as much money to them. They can just scrap and beg for money on the streets to get their cut since its working so well!

[@1646Alex]

@@augustoof13 that’s bc America isn’t a real country it’s all just a scheme to pay for our military

[@elisanoro]

Fr. I poor from a very low income town (tho some people were very well off because they were farmers) and it felt like we had like 4 of these a year 💀💀 I could be wrong because it's been so long but that'd how it felt ✋️😭

[@burgerking5223]

Let’s be real - the chocolate bar fundraisers worked the best of all. You’re right - people don’t want wrapping paper or magazine subscriptions. But offer someone a giant chocolate bar for $2, and there is a way bigger chance they’re gonna say yes! Lol. Tbh I remember most of my money collected coming from my own family buying them to eat 😂

[@whyhesoears]

i remember i ate most of my own stock and just lied about it

[@SariiaTheCatDemon]

The chocolate bars are a fairly simple exchange, which I believe is what helps their success better than the catalogue. For one, the chocolate is right there, in person. People could see the selection, pay, and get their item right then and there. But I get that it's a lot easier to give a child a box of chocolate to carry around, then a random assortment of household items and snacks.

[@SpookyGhostpeppers]

@@SariiaTheCatDemon god in middle and highschool they had to input a rule that we werent allowed to sell those chocolates in class, but tbh school was probably the best market for them. Usually it would be the band or theatre kids doing the fundraiser specifically, so there was less competition, and you would know EXACTLY where to find them during lunch or passing to get your fix. They basically taught a generation of teens to be drug dealers.

[@burgerking5223]

@@SariiaTheCatDemon Exactly! It has the benefit of instant gratification, when some of the other fundraisers have a wait time between purchasing and receiving whatever product.

[@eladiocofresi5202]

Very true. My niece is selling chocolates, and she made three sales on the way home from school due to random people seeing her with the box.

[@Sandwichbagggggg]

I like that you compared it to MLMs, because that's where my mind went. It really does sound like child's first pyramid scheme

[@BoogsterSU2]

Incoming Multi-Level Mondays episode

[@elisanoro]

Gotta get em young 🤧🤧

[@jessicacarranza4010]

Lol true 😂🤣💀

[@appledzz]

Me too

[@ethantaylor6380]

I remember a quadriplegic girl in my grade would sit outside of Walmart and sell way more than anybody. They rewarded her with a Wii. A Wii she could never use.

[@karolnapc2.051]

why she couldn't use it

[@kayleighz7034]

@@karolnapc2.051 quadriplegic means you can’t use any limbs… how would she use the wii remote

[@j8246]

​@@kayleighz7034 omg

[@abbycollins]

Well, shit. I hope she was able to sell it for a decent amount at least.

[@beyondobscure]

That's... humorously ironic.

[@fatgecko1616]

I always hated these stupid fundraisers. All they ever did was make me feel ashamed that I was poor. Ashamed that I couldn't get strangers to buy magazines or whatever garbage they had the students peddling.

[@eatatjoes6751]

I hated them because of how gimmicky they were.

[@gabrielv.4358]

what poor has to do with sales?

[@hellohaveagoodday]

​@@gabrielv.4358poor people usually live around poor people, poor people usually have poor families.

[@JustAGuySlayingDragons]

​@@hellohaveagooddaypoor poor poor poor poor people Damn WW2 Damn stupid jobs my parents have Damn education Damn my ancestors don't have a multi millionaire company Damn damn damn Damn school fundraisers Damn economy Damn inflation Damn Instagram for showing me rich people Damn life expectations Damn Thank you everyone for making life unbearable.

[@leahlei8052]

My school had many fundraisers with prices such as “sell 100 worth of products and get a ride in a limousine” I never got these prizes and it made me so upset! Looking back it was such a scam, I’m glad my parents did not participate.

[@Graylikethecolornotgrace]

We had the limo one too!! But my family was poor so we couldn't really sell to family and neighbors so I never got to go and my friend got to. It didn't matter looking back on it but at the time it sucked

[@zyphex_Memer]

Dream jelly army

[@zyphex_Memer]

Hi

[@zyphex_Memer]

Hi

[@mguymario]

I did get one of thoes and it was a limo ride with a friend to chuck e cheese

[@Canonically_Silly]

I remember my parents HATED school fundraisers and refused to buy anything (I really don’t know why) so I was always really sad when I’d see kids playing with the toys they had gotten at recess and I’d have nothing. However one year, the fundraiser company held a raffle for anyone who’d sign up for the fundraiser on their sight (you didn’t have to sell anything) the winner of the raffle got all the prizes they were offering, and somehow I won the raffle, and finally got to join the kids at recess.

[@catholiccontriversy]

Your parents probably realized the predatory nature of them, like my mom did.

[@solierafromtheultrareconsquad]

Good karma?

[@bakedbaker9882]

Lucky, my school NEVER did that. And they wonder why I'm so bitter now, hahaha

[@SpaceClownn]

Glad you got to join in!

[@asmrtpop2676]

Your parents hated it because they’re literally designed for kids of rich parents or kids of parents with a massive social network to win the most. My parents would try but we only had so many family friends as we were immigrants to the US. Even as a kid I saw it was rigged.

[@maenad1231]

The only reason I got the “good” seeming prizes is because my mom worked at a nursing/retirement home and the elderly LIVED for supporting these things. Hardly did any work and the kids who tried that hardest got the worst prizes if any at all

[@kindlyevilbgm]

@@zyphex_Memer Zyphex pls stop spamming. I've seen you on almost every comment. 😭

[@moarmy6779]

@@kindlyevilbgm Agreed! It's very annoying! 😡

[@SocialExperiment232]

@@zyphex_Memerbro get a real hobby!

[@jalapeno1119]

@@kindlyevilbgm probably a bot

[@icekitty11]

that feels a little unethical. If they're in a retirement home, they shouldn't be getting advertised to by those trusted to take care of them

[@lobear5430]

In 6th grade I had my heart set on getting the final prize, a ride in a Hummer stretch limo to a pizza party. The assembly man said that the limo had and xbox AND a playstation in it. Somehow my parents were able to get enough people at their work to buy stuff that I got the reward. The limo was cool, but there were no game systems in it and we didn't go to a pizza party, we just kind of drove around for a half hour with 5 kids that didn't really know each other just sitting in silence.

[@twotruckslyrics]

mannn i remember the dumb limo rides, they did that in middle school and ??

[@sonic23233]

Our biggest prize was a ventriloquism show

[@douglasgriffiths3534]

What a rip-off. (Jan Griffiths).

[@joshstorms3953]

Honestly you are not the only one. During one of the fundraisers at my school (This was around the mid 2000s) one of the prizes was a trip in a hummer limo to a restaurant for lunch and it sounded like you would be gone most of the afternoon. We were also told/promised by the spokes person that it would be equipped with a flat screen tv and a PS3. A buddy of mine along with several others sold enough to win that prize and man were they disappointed. Instead all they got was a regular limo with a dated interior, a small tv that barley worked that had a ps1 hooked up to it. Also they just went out to a near by McDonalds and back for lunch within 45 min. There is a lot of fine print that you are never told/notice as a kid, allowing these companies to exaggerate/lie about the rewards without any consequences for them. If it were up to me and my kids school had to do a fund raiser , I would require the school/catalog company to deliver on what they promised at the very least.

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

Formative memory unlocked

[@lynndoesntexist]

I was humiliated in front of my jrotc class in high school for not selling anything during one of these fundraisers, and I legit didn't care about it but the girls who had to stand up with me as we were scolded did, so I've reviled these ever since.

[@naive_wallflower]

Same here, constantly was called out each day in my flight where each and every morning I was asked loudly how much I sold and I would always brood and say none. Every. Single. Morning. Until the damn fundraiser for selling those $1.00 chocolate bars was finished. They would even read out names and state how much everyone has made, going to the ones who made the most down to those that did no sales, stating the numbers and everything. Absolutely awful.

[@level700giga8]

Yah, it seems really awful looking back that they'd try to shame kids into doing their crappy fundraiser by asking Infront of other students why they weren't selling enough. Like, you'd think they'd want more money to improve the schools for their kids, but then end up hurting the same kids in the prosses.

[@TomikaKelly]

😒 My debate coach did the same, but I DGAF because I KNEW $30 cheesecakes in the midst of the Great Recession wouldn't sell. I tried to explain to him that only my parents would buy from me because we were in a housing and financial crisis (2008) and no one needs an overpriced cheesecake that they have to wait 6 weeks for when they can go to Cheesecake Factory and get a much bigger one immediately. 😫

[@jaceybella1267]

​@@TomikaKellyoh you guys had the cheesecake one too? My middle school chorus did the cheesecakes too lmao

[@DameOfDiamonds]

Really? We never did these in my highschool we just sold chocolate bars

[@weepingkoopa2862]

I remember one year my school hired a guy dressed as Mr. Incredible to promote a fundraiser. What i remember most about that entire thing was watching a guy dressed as Mr. Incredible suddenly run onto the main stage while prancing heroically with absolutely no response or fanfare from the kids watching. just absolute silence.

[@realleon2328]

that is insanely funny

[@draculastraphouse7863]

Epic fail

[@skeletonking2501]

This hurts to imagine

[@abbycollins]

I hope that guy tried to get applause afterwards and it failed.

[@BonBon42]

💗😹 The Funniest Part About Reading That Is That I Misread That As “Practicing Heroically”❣️ That & The Awkward Silence❣️ 😹💗

[@woffordgirl]

I will never understand how schools encouraged kids to go door to door to sell stuff. My mom never let me participate because she didn't want me getting snatched up doing it.

[@Sasha-zw9ss]

It is weird from the other side too - weird to expect people to open the door (because the kid might turn out to be not alone). Also since here most people live in apartment buildings, you'd have to get access to each of the communal hallways somehow.

[@MandyMeowington5]

In the same era where stranger danger was shoved down our throats nonstop no less

[@cilantrho]

i remember at every assembly they would say “do not go door to door to people you don’t know” but we all knew that was the only way to get something better than some marbles. either that or have a parent who worked at a big office

[@frocoshake2107]

So when I was an elementary school student, my parents owned a large small business, as in they had a lot of customers and quite a few employees. Through that, I made so many sales, and I think I was either the top or like the number two seller in the entire school. My school had like a whole party For kids who made enough sales, but the prizes were like absolute bottom of the barrel. I'm talking cheap carnival game level prizes, And to top it off, I remember hearing my parents and employees of my parents complaining about how absolute garbage The food they purchased was from the fundraiser.

[@zekewalker1350]

@@cilantrho yeah I got this speech for sure, and the kids who got the most prizes always said how they didnt have to do anything cuz their parents took the catalogue to the work office.

[@ChickenNugget-ev8zd]

The worst fundraiser I ever had to do was selling bed sheets for cross country. My coach was mad that I didn’t sell single one, and it didn’t help that I was the worst runner on the team. Edit: that fundraiser was meant to pay off this tiny trailer that could probably fit less stuff than the bed of a pickup truck (which is what half of the teachers and students at my school drives) and I recently found out they're still paying it off.

[@Carbon8tion]

It could be worse, my schools band sold mattresses.

[@tristynthegreat]

@@Carbon8tion there’s enough mattress “stores” on earth

[@contessaeller4108]

@@Carbon8tion Mattresses?? At christmas our band sold boxes of oranges (I never participated bc I don't know who needs a million oranges)

[@solarmoth4628]

@@Carbon8tion I sold mattresses too! I thought we were the only ones lol.

[@kaleenar963]

@@solarmoth4628 My band also sells mattresses too, weird…

[@montanadozier9924]

My grandma waited every year for this. She was more excited than I was. She bought all her wrapping paper for the holidays from it and half her shopping for said holidays.

[@princessUSA2]

I never liked those, even as a little kid. I was super shy, didn't want to talk to people, felt bad asking for money and didn't want any of the prizes they ever offered. I just ignored them. My parents also got upset because they didn't like that the school was asking kids to ask for money.

[@Shadows_emerald]

Me too! It always gave me anxiety

[@douglasgriffiths3534]

I wasn't shy or anxious, but I thought even as a kid that those kinds of fundraisers just weren't what I wanted to participate in. So I never did. I was too busy with horse shows anyway. (Jan Griffiths).

[@miikeneko]

im really glad you brought up kids who couldnt participate bc i was one of those kids! my family was on food stamps growing up and i didnt live in a neighborhood so i could only sell one or 2 items at most. i remember the day prizes were delivered i would always feel so left out and shamed. its really a scummy practice, preying on elementary schoolers emotions like that

[@playcube4564]

i always wondered if the guy doing the presentation has any soul, it has to feel bad trying to scam children with shiny toys

[@Bailderdash]

Real. My mom didn't have the resources to take me anywhere to sell so my only hope was my grandma and she never bought anything. I felt so jealous when I saw kids receiving race cars and on the lower end bouncy balls and I got nothing

[@defriedpings]

I have always felt the same about book fairs. Like let's make this big exciting days out of kids who have the money buying things from the book fair. its shitty

[@Digglesisdead]

@@defriedpings I was one of the Book Fair Moms. I know that several of us reached into our pockets to buy a book for the kids that kept coming in and looking longingly at the books but had no money.

[@jaceybella1267]

​@@Digglesisdeadawww that's so sweet. At my school growing up, the kids without money to spend weren't even allowed to go. It sucked that I couldn't even look around a lot of the time

[@casey6834]

I was a kid that never sold anything and I'm proud! Our teacher would usually pop in a movie while other kids went to the fun events. Now, I'm an elementary school teacher and I also pop in a fun video or play a game because it's extremely inconvenient to have a handful of kids miss out on actual lessons. I also want to make the kiddos who are excluded from the fun event feel like they're not being punished just because they didn't sell a bunch of crap. These students usually lack the family support and funding at home to be successful in these types of fundraisers. Kids who do succeed often have parents who work at large businesses and simply pass the catalogue around to employees. (Of course, there are also some kids who are natural salespeople and really work hard.)

[@yikesitsconnor]

awww you're the best teacher! Thank you for making those kids' day better!

[@hamsterama]

I wish I had someone like you as a teacher! When I was in the 7th grade, we were "forced" to sell raffle tickets for a fundraiser. Our teacher told us that if we didn't sell a certain number of tickets, you'd have stay at school (in the principal's office, I think) while everyone else would get the "prize," which was to spend the day at the park with a big playground. No one my parents knew would be interested in something as lame as raffle tickets. So, I had to go door-to-door by myself, which, as a girl, was probably not safe in retrospect. I only managed to sell two raffle tickets after knocking on probably over 100 doors. Of course, I was in tears after having so many people slam doors in my face. My mom called the school and got in touch with the teacher to complain. The teacher lied and said we were never required to sell any raffle tickets, and it was optional. I still vividly remember all this, and I'm 38 now. Yes, it was that traumatic! When that teacher forced us to sell raffle tickets, I wonder if she asked herself if the students would remember it for the rest of their lives.

[@ikb9386]

I was one of those kids too and I’m really thankful for teachers like you 😊

[@noahbossier1131]

Agreed

[@appledzz]

That's great, also tell your students not to feel bad about not selling anything and that most likely the wrapping paper or items will end up in a Goodwill or the Goodwill version of some southern country (now either where do many of my articles come in mi local second hands)

[@DOG-NIGHTMARE]

this unlocked a memory of my teachers giving us like time before class after these fundraisers to toss our packets into the recycling bin if we didnt wanna participate 😭

[@madysonandres9571]

Damn. That’s funny though.

[@splendidsimp]

they probably knew it was bullshit and wanted you guys to get out

[@noahbossier1131]

Agreed

[@unknown_limes]

I was the kid who never sold anything. My family, including the extended members, deal with intergenerational poverty, meaning we've never had a lot to go around. I remember bringing the catalog home so my little brother and I could sit with a marker, circling the prizes we'd really like to get, but it was really just a fantasy to kill a bit of time after all the homework's done. The FOMO and jealousy did suck, but I learnt how to deal with it. That was just how life was, unfair as it seemed. Means I just worked harder to get AR points since my school had this program where we could spend AR points on various little items in this spare classroom they used as a store (the cheat code was picking out a few books n saving more so you could get a larger prize, tho I never got to use mine bc the school secretary who ran the store got sick n it wasn't open the last week before the summer I moved)

[@waffleson45]

Did the same with my brother cool! i haven't heard about AR points in ages, my teacher used them for an easy good grade. my school did these "tornado bucks" to get stuff like little prizes you'd get them just for being good which I raked up a lot but never used them.

[@syd2334]

The way teachers would guilt kids if they didn’t sell enough. And how some kids HAD to sell them in order to go on trips. Nasty.

[@Spongyboi897]

When this fundraiser thing came around, all I did was just keep the chocolates and forget what I was supposed to do after a day or two, I somehow didn't get shamed at thankfully.

[@vamprisa1]

I'm autistic and my school had one of these. My autism makes it hard to talk to strangers, and it was worse when I was a child. When I got to the very first house, I could barely get any words out of my mouth and when I showed them the catalogue, they slammed the door in my face and I ran home sobbing. Needless to say I never did anything like that ever again, and I hate knocking on anyone's doors for any reason at all now.

[@CapitalLuke]

We did something similar in the Netherlands as well (kinderpostzegels, children's post stamps) but to raise funds for a charity instead, it didn't help that I was also autistic and struggled to explain the concept to a bunch of strangers in my town. I don't think I made more than a few sales each time I participated, which was oddly relieving because I hated talking to strangers There was also this older couple who pressured me to go in their house and to take candy, while they were very kind and I don't think they were malicious, it made me extremely uncomfortable because I had declined their offers and my teachers made it very clear that we should not accept anything or go into the homes of strangers.

[@vamprisa1]

@@CapitalLuke In my old neighborhood there was an old man and he invited me into his house for grapes and I went like an idiot. Luckily he was nice, but it was still a really dumb move on my part.

[@peachesandcream22]

@@vamprisa1 i don't think you was dumb, you was very naive. And very lucky

[@augustoof13]

I never got to do those fundraisers, and honestly I’m kinda glad for it. I’m autistic as well, but my problem wasn’t really talking to people, it was talking to them too much (still have this issue, and also I used to hug random strangers. I was a very weird kid.) If i ever got a door slammed in my face from doing one of these things I’m pretty sure I’d be traumatized and never want to talk to people again. My fundraiser I wasn’t allowed to do was cookie dough; I thought the prizes looked so cool. Now I’m bothering my family about how i remember the fundraisers and asking if they do too lol.

[@vamprisa1]

@@augustoof13 My problem is barely being able to talk to strangers and then suddenly talking constantly when I get comfortable around someone, and then worrying I'm annoying them and then stopping for a while. An autism train wreck honestly

[@ComicDrake]

God, I have been loving these elementary school deep dives.

[@ajzeg01]

Hey Drake! I’ve been watching you since I was IN elementary school!

[@jav669]

My parents were luckily pretty aware that it was a scam so they never let me do these fundraisers, which I was thankful for even then, but it also meant that I had to sit there and get nothing while my classmates all got fun prizes or what ever. Like I wasn't super bothered but I can't imagine what it was like for other kids who wanted to participate but couldn't for some reason. It felt so unfair

[@JordanDrewVideos]

exactly! Poor kids never had anyone to buy things. While other kids got to ride in the limo and made sure everyone knew it

[@BEASLAND000]

Yup I was one of those poor kids, and I wonder why I grew up pitying myself into depression lol

[@SecretIdentityStudio]

Same, I was never allowed to go door to door and could only try and sell to my family. There was too much competition in my neighbourhood anyway.

[@scottdoesntmatter4409]

uhm, then your parents COULD have simply gotten you a toy, something better than any of the junk the other kids got.

[@jav669]

@@scottdoesntmatter4409 OK? But they shouldn't have had to lol?

[@rosecatuwu]

At my old elementary school, from what I remember we didn't have any fundraisers for the school itself, but fundraisers for an organization called "Jump Rope For Heart", which is an organization dedicated to researching heart disease, specifically in children, a much more noble goal. As a kid I never rlly grasped that you were supposed to go around and sell stuff though, I always wanted the smaller prizes like the cute duck keychains and stuff so my parents would just pay the money outright lol. I still have one of the cute little plush monsters from one of the later years on my backpack.

[@Jerebee-DS]

This is the second comment I've seen about Jump Rope for Heart. The American School System truly is a Modern Horror.

[@GreenGorgeousness]

I actually realized jump rope for heart. But I really love jump roping and the excuse to jump ropysll day and not be in the classroom was my favorite part. I never really cared to raise that much money for it, I just loved doing tricks and everyone sharing a love of jump rope...

[@beetlebop]

My school did Jump Rope for Heart too! Those ducks were always coveted lol

[@waffleson45]

i still got a captain america duck the presenter guy threw in the crowd i managed to catch

[@leeeeeeeeeeeeeviathan]

In elementary school we did something called a "hop-a-thon" where you had to hop on one foot and the more you hopped the more prizes you win. I remember one year I won an invisible ink pen. That's the only thing I wanted from the event so I only hopped like 40 times lol

[@Poliwager]

I remember learning pretty quickly (probably due to my parents not having a ton of disposable income at the time) that these fundraisers were kinda scummy and I barely sold much from them. I think the only thing I ever won from one was a cool tie-dye lanyard that I still have, probably about 20 years later! I use it for a conference I attend each summer most years, and it's actually held up quite well.

[@alysonk5853]

Yup, I did too. Still, the prizes did seem enticing

[@placeholderdoe]

You are the person who benefited most from one of those prizes

[@lindsayleightner403]

I did some PTA work for my kid's school and it turns out that the school only gets back 40% of the profits from these fundraisers! It's such a scam all around. It'd make way more sense to just ask parents to donate to the PTA, but people and kids alike like the idea of getting something for their money. So stupid.

[@darkdest6664]

yoo fr id just do a bake sale at that point, less child suffering and more yummy treats! (ill prob do that for my kids if i decide I have enough time to join the PTA)

[@DropsOfIndigo]

Someone I follow said she used to that when her kids were in primary school (they’re high school and college now). She’d toss the catalogs and write a check directly to the school instead.

[@zoguy6988]

I grew up in a low income community and I had social anxiety through the roof. The only people I felt comfortable talking to that also had an income were my parents, and they're major focus was making sure we had food over our heads and sleep on the table. Every time these fundraisers came up, I'd first get upset cuz I couldn't have my single crayon, and then zone out. Sitting during those presentations just felt like a waist of time. The only good part about them was that I didn't have to do long division with my undiagnosed dyscalculia. But I'd say the worst part about it was that the teachers never allowed me to doodle in the sketchbook during these presentations.

[@joylox]

I feel that. My dad is in a rather well off area, but my mom isn't. However, the houses are close together where my mom is, so that made it easier to walk. I also have dyscalculia and didn't even know what that was until seeing a KZbin video when I was a teen. So any excuse to avoid math was welcome. We didn't really have presentations on them, and we literally were doing them to get out of debt and pay for the heat, so we had more motivation being a private school with 0 government funding. Thankfully, they usually chose reasonable ones, and this was before online shopping got popular, or else I think a lot of people would have just bought the same things on AliExpress or eBay. Bake sales were more fun. Nothing like making an assembly line of friends telling jokes while making pies or cookies.

[@Jerebee-DS]

I hope this doesn't sound rude, but I thought dyscalculia was just a cursed spelling of the word "dyslexia" and I mentally went "yeah that makes sense" without knowing it was a disorder about math 😭💀 But knowing what it is now, I can see how HELLISH it would be to try and do something with these kinds of fundraisers! :( Also I understand the pain of not being able to draw in your sketchbook during the assembly. Whenever they happened for me it was always a pain to focus.. And to just be there in general due to how loud the mic and speakers would be. It wasn't fun for Pre-Autism Diagnosis me.

[@GreenGorgeousness]

​@@joylox your version sounds nicer.

[@lavenderwyvern]

Ugh, I have terrible memories of these. Like, pit of my stomach grossness memories. I remember they used to send each kid home with a huge heavy box of chocolates that we had to bring back if we didn't sell them, and I just remember how much stress I felt going home with them. The shame of walking back to school with the unsold chocolates year after year- my dad bought a couple one year and they tasted horrible, and I remember it was like a class war thing at school because the better off kids would just have their families buy the boxes. Then it would be a big show at an assembly again lauding the kids who sold the most. I'm not sure why exactly the memory of these being dug up has made me feel so gross- I think it has to have been the bullying and the shame of dragging the boxes back to school after they forced them on us. Absolutely heinous, evil shit. The cookie dough fundraisers were easier to handle because you just brought papers home, but I still remember they forced you to fill out your order form even if you sold 0 buckets of cookie dough so there still was that walk of shame aspect. Horrid.

[@C.K.Productions]

God dude same, those chocolate fundraisers were awful. My school didn’t allow us to give back the unsold chocolate though, we were forced to sell all of it. And if we didn’t, our parents had to cough up like $60 for the damn box. That chocolate was shit.

[@TheEmilyxx99]

I've had to sell chocolate, wrapping paper, those cookie catalogs thingies, BUT we were explicitly told NOT to go door-to-door and we had to sell to family/friends only. Mostly because I went to school in Manhattan and the School didnt want to be blamed it something happened to us for selling garbage. Usually, our parents just ended up bringing whatever it was to work and would sell them to their coworkers. $1 chocolate bars were the easiest bc when you're stuck in an office all day and a coworker has a box of chocolate for $1, you might as well buy one. I don't think any KID actually did it, parents did it for us or didnt do it at all.

[@ultimate_pawnch]

My sister had one of those fundraisers where they give you a box of candy bars to sell. You better believe she ate every single one of them. Our mom was furious, but even worse is that we were a low-income family so I have no idea how she dealt with the aftermath. Catalogs are one thing, but they absolutely shouldn't give children actual physical product to sell. Especially when said product might tempt the child.

[@rileyf.838]

my class is currently doing a chocolate fundraiser and we have to order a big case of chocolate then go out and sell them, and i was looking at the order form with “ITS SO EASY” written in huge letters everywhere on it. so i leaned over to my friend and went “haha, it’s giving pyramid scheme” and he was confused so i was just like “haha nvm” but FINALLY some validation on my perceptions

[@philovidya8567]

I remember selling chocolate when I was younger. That is not so bad, they’re usually very cheap and the customer gets it right away. I never had a problem with trying to sell all mine. I wouldn’t really consider it a pyramid scheme, but it can be annoying to do.

[@nickmoney]

I actually just sold candy and snacks year round in elementary school to students and teachers. Not a fundraiser thing but I was making thousands per year in profit. I'm still a reseller online ironically lol.

[@xjunkxyrdxdog89]

The only thing you're wrong about is the shape. Less of a pyramid and more of a drinking straw. 😂

[@cornelliusmccollum5559]

I was a very isolated kid and I was scared of people so I didn't really participate. The only people who bought anything from me were my grandma and one sibling, it was enough to get the first prize but nothing else seemed worth wasting my afternoon on

[@Vibrantly_Monochromatic]

Some school events were just terrible

[@jeffreyprater]

Man this was a blast from the past. This brought back so many memories. I graduated in 2001 so door to door fundraisers was super common when I was in elementary and middle school. I absolutely hated going door to door in my neighborhood because there were hundreds of kids in my neighborhood so if you weren’t out selling on day 1, all you’d hear from people is they already bought some. I never sold much. And was super pissed at how much time I invested into it to get nothing in return. I have kids now and fundraising today, or at least at their school or our school system, doesn’t do door to door sales. What they do instead are movie nights, sports days, icee days, etc. and every kids just brings in like $5 to participate. Last year my daughter’s elementary school made like $50,000 doing this. The school probably makes much more money this way, and every kid wins.

[@siralexander3359]

I remember making it to the sticky hand tier and that was it. Selling little beanie baby animals

[@mynameisreallycool1]

I wish more school districts did what your kids' school district is doing. That seems smarter and a lot more effective (not to mention less stressful, expensive, and time consuming) than the stupid selling door to door method that so many schools use.

[@jeffreyprater]

@@mynameisreallycool1 My dad hated these fundraisers too. He would bring it to work and try to sell, but of course he worked with people who also had kids who were doing the same fundraisers… But yeah, I love what my kids’ school does. Yeah, I’m the one donating, but I’d rather give them $50-100 a year instead of the time sink fundraising would be.

[@Lovidem]

My school did a funfair if you sold 1 item in the catalog. My mom usually just bought something just so I could go. Then they raised it to 5 items and all of a sudden the classroom was full of kids on funfair day... Luckily my teachers usually showed a movie and brought treats for that day so we didn't feel bad for not going. I loved those teachers, they were so cool 🥰

[@VelvetWxtch]

thats horrible (not your teachers but the school for excluding children)

[@noahbossier1131]

Agreed

[@twotruckslyrics]

😭i remember those stupid funfairs. there was a fundraiser last year where they made us sit quietly in a classroom the entire schoolday while it happened. weird

[@marahsoore6452]

I remember clearly when I moved to a new school who did this type of fundraising. I sat in the gym listening to the presentation being so excited to give it a try. When I got home I showed my mom the catalog and she frowned and said 'we won't be doing that, your father will make a donation to the school'. I told her there would be prizes for me to win if I did this and she was firm on us not buying from them. When I asked my dad if he could show his co-workers the catalog he explained he wouldn't be allowed since he was their boss and it would be a no-no in his part of the business world. When I went to go to my neighbors I found all the kids from my school were hitting my neighborhood before I could get the chance. I was the only kid in the neighborhood and everyone knew the wealthy elderly families lived there. When the prizes came I sat there watching my friends get new toys (they did break days later but the disappointment was real). Later on when my school kept doing the fundraiser my mom would take me to the dollar store on prize day so I could pick out my own stuff. There was only one time they bought something from the catalog, it was a pop-up victorian doll house that I wanted. I got a silly straw as my reward and I realized I'd rather have the doll house so I never bothered to do those fundraisers every again.

[@RoxyToons]

I always found catalog fundraisers super weird especially when they would do it in small communites of a couple thousand people at most they would still expect you to get 100+ sales and your left kidney for like a slinky.

[@sergeant_kitty]

I remember doing these fundraisers and being one of those kids that was able to flex getting the "bigger" prizes cuz my parents and grandpa took the catalogs to work, and since a lot of the people they worked with didn't have kids to scam them before I could, my sister and I tended to make some pretty good profits. I think at one point we got to have a "pizza and ice cream" party. Of course the ice cream was those little swirl cups with the wooden spoon sticks and the pizza was Little Caesars and we only got one slice per kid. I also remember my seething disappointment and hatred when I got some big toy prize (can't remember what it was, all I know is you spun it around and it had LEDs that scratched my little baby brain when I saw it in action at the initial announcement) and it broke immediately. I also remember when I went to a different school for a couple years and for one of the fundraisers the prizes included different little ducks(?) and I sold a good deal of stuff so for a while I just had this weird pile of tiny rubber ducks dressed in different outfits. Ahh, baby's first MLM scheme :)

[@whitz.awezome.zauce69]

Aw yes the jump for heart ducks

[@sergeant_kitty]

@@whitz.awezome.zauce69 bro don't even get me started on jump for heart. Kids in my school went NUTS over that!

[@mikeyfrederick1232]

Baby's first little MLM...IM DEADDDD LOL

[@iamobsessedwithshadowsight]

Not exactly the same thing, but I remember when my school did Jump Rope for Heart, which if you don’t know, encourages you to convince your friends and family to donate to a heart health fundraiser in exchange for some rubber ducks, and I, through the power of an e-mail threatening to flush them down the toilet if they didn’t donate, convinced much of my close and extended family to donate, and ended up having a huge lanyard of rubber ducks that hurt my neck and everyone tried to touch 💀

[@zyphex_Memer]

Yeah

[@asapling]

I remember that one very vaguely. I still have a duck from it, and it was the sock monkey.

[@rudelittleant3654]

i HATED jump rope for heart!! they would always visit my elementary school - and it was mandatory for everyone to participate in the jumproping. i remember one of the employees (?) giving me shit for not participating enough...i have asthma, i was wheezing.

[@MistyCypress]

i remember my elementary school having that too! they even had a thing where if you had a certain amount of ducks, you'd get a free duck that was covered in rhinestones.

[@pastelskybun]

Omg yess Jump Rope for Heart was so iconic for my elementary! I don’t recall what exactly about the ducks was so enticing 😂❤

[@QueenMariposa5]

I didn't understand fundraisers *AT ALL* in primary school. I thought they were called Fun-Raisers and the catalogue of trinkets was something that we purchased ourselves. I completely tuned out at the part about being door-to-door sales kids. My mom just wrote it off as a scam so I never bothered.

[@BioMega96]

Same here, completely zoned out on that part

[@Gone_Rogue_was_taken]

We did a similar thing expect we had Jump Rope For Heart. (I think it's called something different now). We had to get people to donate to the American Heart Association to help peoples hearts. That sounds good on paper but it used guilt trips "Finn has insert heart condition, we need you to save him by donating." It made me cry and I'm practical sure 90% of the profits went to corporate.

[@CrocodileRay]

These were so weird back in grade school. An angry parent caused my school to quit doing it after only a few years of operation.

[@cloudwyrms9752]

As someone with social anxiety (and VERY likely undiagnosed asd), I was always completely oblivious to these and never participated. But the whole idea is like a weird half-forgotten highly specific childhood memory lmao

[@raelogan]

Oh, my Mom HATED these so much because it usually included all three of us kids at the time they come around, and she certainly didn't want us going door-to-door, so she'd just buy a couple things off each so we'd get a bookmark lamp or something. Same with candy sales. She'd just buy the whole boxes from us and stock them in the freezer so we didn't have to go to a stranger's house. Probably didn't help that a few years prior, two boys were murdered walking around the same residential area we lived in, so she didn't like the idea of us going up to random people to sell candy. 👀

[@tehshotman]

Same here. My mom didnt like the idea of me and my other siblings going around to random strangers trying to sell things that, in her view, were overpriced stuff you could get cheaper or at equal value at a Wal-mart or even a dollar store. So she refused her consent for us to sell, and bought just like 1 or 2 things, just enough for us to get the lowest tier prize which was something like a mechanical pencil that usually ends up getting misplaced after a few days, never to be seen again, or thrown in the junk drawer never to be used, just so we can say we participated and didn't feel left out.

[@jerrystogieboy908]

My school had this fundraiser system through middle school with all the terrible prizes and products. However, there was one fundraiser which was always successful, and that was the coupon book. As far as I remember, coupon books had two tiers: $15 and $25. In these coupon books were over 100 pages of coupons for businesses within a 50-100 mile radius. Everyone in the school was able to sell at least 2 of the coupon books to their parents, and the parents received coupons which were in many regards substantial (every ten pages was a 20 percent off coupon for higher end restaurants and retailers). This fact coupled with how this fundraiser happened right around 2009-2012 made it a great benefit to families hit by the recession as well as businesses impacted by the BP oil spill (I live on the Florida Gulf Coast in a tourism-based region),as well as all others involved. Not only were people willing to buy these coupon books, but the volume of these things available made it so even when the fundraiser “ended”, the front office still had some available throughout the school year. Just to put it into scale, my intermediate school had less than 500 students, and there was a semi truck filled with 2” by 5” coupon books on industrial pallets. I’ve never seen a coupon sale like it before, but I hope to see it make a comeback.

[@Spicylolipop]

I had one of these in high school to pay for new uniforms for marching band. Every one was sick of these fundraisers and we weren’t able to sell much. Our band director was hella mad at us for not selling so one of my teammates mates asked if we could have our parents donate directly without buying any wrapping paper/chocolates or whatever it was. We hit our goal by the end of the week.

[@Chris.Batchelor]

Your point about the lack of them in high school was honestly kinda eye opening as to why they didn’t happen. The closest thing we ever had in high school was a program in our band class that sold bulk fruits in order to pay for school instruments that kids couldn’t afford, or help partially fund the band trips we did.

[@SCIFIguy64]

We sold trash bags. Crazy thing was it outsold any other fundraiser because we had those 500 bag rolls of thick plastic that will last a couple years.

[@shortstacks592]

We sold worlds finest chocolate, which is pretty good and is one dollar a bar, so it generally works out pretty well- Mostly because our band ain't funded by our school the the only way to make money is from these fundraisers.

[@jenluvjake]

For some reason my sister's school thought it was a good idea to sell mattresses for a fundraiser, like every year. Who needs a new mattress once a year!? Honestly it probably would've worked better if they sold chocolate.

[@graycat7704]

We sold candy bars

[@Yllania]

I remember in highschool we sold candy bars, lollipops and these giant cookies. Honestly liked it a lot better Id end up buying my own stock lmao.

[@saladglove]

For me, having grown up in a very low income neighborhood, I always remember being sad getting these catalogs from school, because I couldn't even get the cheapest prize on the list. Not very many people in my neighborhood were willing (let alone be able to afford) these overly-priced products. Then of course, there was competition, as by the time I would even come back from school, all the kids in my neighborhood got to all the willing adults first. All in all, while it seemed fun on the surface, it really was just a scam.

[@darkdan3549]

Same, I lived in a bad neighborhood so going door-to-door selling chocolates was a big no since I probably would have gotten robbed. Also didn't really have a supportive family that would help me out with sales or even give a fuck in any way. Luckily I think my teachers figured that out and they didn't really care.

[@splendidsimp]

I will never forget how my middle school tried to sell GARBAGE BAGS to fundraise a fancy, new digital sign and it failed horribly leading to them just getting a plain, normal sign

[@-shadow-835]

😂

[@seaurchinted]

what was the company ur school partnered with 😭 i have never heard of selling garbage bags for a school fundraiser

[@splendidsimp]

@@seaurchinted I could not remember the name of the company for the life of me, I just remember that they were colorful and that was one of the drawing points

[@CuriousRedChicken]

My daughters class sold garbage bags in kindergarten. Plain white ones tho, no fancy colors. I remember she was all up in arms about it too, commenting on how weird it was but to be fair I bought some and they were actually good quality. Much better than the ones at the grocery store. 😂

[@TomikaKelly]

They were better off just asking for donations or doing that cereal box top thing.

[@StarFilmsMMD]

My family had a devastating experience with one of these fundraisers. My older brother wanted to do it at the time because the prizes were enticing and my parents not knowing better decided to help him out and they went door to door promoting the catalog and receiving the payment donation for the school. However, none of the neighbors actually ended up getting the items they paid for and complained to my parents about it. So they had no choice but to go door to door once again paying back each of the neighbors the money they had got scammed off of. That's why when my turn came around to do one of these fundraisers my parents absolutely refused to do it. And I don't know if its just my lack of memory but I never actually saw anyone get the prizes on those catalogs so I'm not even entirely sure if the kids who sold a bunch of items got the prize they deserved.

[@noahbossier1131]

That’s sick. I’m sorry you went through this

[@bleethteed8681]

The closest memory I have to this is like the "Jump Rope for Heart" thing when I was maybe 6 or 7, and I hate how this kind of thing isn't remotely unsurprising. I was the kind of kid where missing out on things like the fun day you won at school would have devastated me, I'm glad I don't remember anything like that personally. It's kind of extremely gross honestly, like that shouldn't be something people are allowed to do??

[@mynameisreallycool1]

Oh man. I almost completely forgot about the Jump Rope for Heart thing. I had that at my school too. You've unlocked a new memory in me.

[@level700giga8]

OMG I remember Jump rope for heart!!! They had the dogs as mascots I think, and my school would do it every year. My friends parents where both like, heart doctors or whatever you call it, so they'd buy all the crap and make big donations, and she'd always get called up and thanked for how much she participated, when it was all because her parents were loaded. I always felt bad complaining about it because she was really nice, but it always felt shitty cause I'd work so hard to try and get prizes, and get basically nothing in return, and she'd do nothing and get all the best prizes.

[@zilaxia]

HOLY SHIT I had jump rope for heart too. It’s ridiculous how they wanted us to work so hard for DUCKS. LITTLE RUBBER DUCKS.

[@BeadedBy_Bee]

I did a think like this in 4th grade for the American heart association or something and I got like $100 USD worth of donations. Sadly, I have no other memory of these events.

[@keyarrma]

yes this was the second thing i remembered after the catalogs! i was a forgetful kid and most of the time i'd ask my mom for $20 or something to get the prizes (a rubber ducky and a chance to compete in a jump rope competition) while kids who raised a lot got to pie the principal in the face along with bigger prizes

[@karmalotto8587]

Wow, I just realized how many internalized issues these fundraisers gave me. I remember when I went to these assemblies I'd think "well my stepmom would never let me do this, and what's even the point? rich/popular Sally over there will probably make hundreds of sales, then who will be left for me? besides, I live in the country, I have no neighbors to beg" I think I also remember feeling like manipulating people into selling stuff was weird. In my mind I was like "Isn't it really awkward for me AND the adult when I'm trying to sell them stuff? Is it really my place to come to someone's house and push them to buy something?" So I just didn't participate. All of this to say I *did* ultimately feel sad and ashamed when kids got all their prizes and I had nothing. I didn't even attempt to make sales, but it still felt bad that the other kids who were already predisposed towards being able to make sales and have an easy time with the fundraiser got treated better for a day just because. What was worse was feeling like I didn't have a chance from the start. Really crushed my work ethic too, because I was complacent with being a loser and winning nothing. I just accepted it and moved on. Not a very healthy mindset to have been carried on to adulthood 😬 But this video has made me more aware of it now, so I'll try to work on that now. I appreciate you covering this topic!

[@bakedbaker9882]

Dude, same ;-; It's just a rich people contest, it feels cruel them just getting up the hopes of the poor and socially awkward kids only to crush them once prizes are distributed. Whomever came up with that idea should be tarred and feathered imo.

[@playcube4564]

yeah i had the same response, the prizes were junk and i was the weird loner kid anyway so i just threw the catalouge away and let the rich kids get scammed

[@Charles_Sherrill]

You know, I had thought about these school fundraisers a while ago. I never gave them a second thought until recently, but these things come off as really dystopian. We live in a world where schools don’t receive enough funding and have to resort to what is essentially child labor. I don’t completely blame either the schools or the catalogue companies for the fundraisers, but the government instead.

[@lambybunny7173]

We had something a bit different, called jump rope for heart. I made a whole website for it (a very shitty one, I was like 7) and based it off of how I would roleplay in smash bros brawl with myself using two controllers and playing as Pikachu and link. I drew Pikachu and link jump roping and also playing Minecraft and that was enough to raise me enough money to get first place, and that was the biggest accomplishment of my entire life

[@jalapeno1119]

My school did Jump Rope For Heart, too!

[@harlsqirl]

Omg you just unlocked so many memories for me I had completely forgot about that

[@hello_ree]

my school had that too!

[@ebibubblesart5843]

Yess my school did this too! I don’t know what happened, but for the one year I actually did fundraise, they forgot to send me my prize.

[@kingdededelicious]

galaxy brain fundraising tactic right there

[@outroseok]

I remember having to sell cookie dough in band in middle school and the thing everyone would be most excited to win for selling a certain amount of items was the "yard stick of gum" which can now be found at the grocery store for no more than 5 dollars. funny how things turn out lol.

[@eatatjoes6751]

I remember having to sell Box Tops or magazines for one of those M&M radio things - I thought it was so cool until the battery ran low and it turned into a hunk of junk we had to throw out - years later while randomly searching M&Ms on Etsy I found one exactly like it and my face looked like Raven Baxter's.

[@etaoinshrdlu927]

A lot of corporations have very similar "reward" catalogs that get handed to an adult employee on their 5th or 10th (etc) anniversary. It wasn't something mentioned up front on hire, and there were no tiers like sticky gel hands for 6 months employed, but I sure got to pick out a clock-radio for 5 years of devoted service.

[@kalebpinkston3495]

Let’s be honest. Most of the sales was a mixture of pity and “look at the cute kid!” Because why would they buy their rapping paper from a cheaper version of Avon?…or just go to Walmart

[@zyphex_Memer]

Yeah

[@ninjaydes]

My elementary friends and I used to clip the gift wrap paper out of the catalogs to fold origami. So even without making sales, the fundraisers we're always a W for us.

[@Photo0021]

Reminds me of things my elementary school ran for a few years. It was run by the American Heart Association and instead of selling items from a catalog, we’d go around asking for donations and the more donations we got, the better prizes we’d receive. The highest prize I probably ever got was a T Shirt for getting $50 worth of donations (really high in the rewards) and they accidentally gave me an Adult Large shirt (I was 9 at the time). It fits me now though! We did a second one from a different company/association that gave out rubber ducks as prizes, and I still have the 40+ I received over my elementary school years. The only one they ran in my school from Kindergarten to 5th though was a runathon where you’d go around asking for donations, then run as many laps as you can a few weeks later. How much money you received and how many laps you ran determined your prizes. Haven’t looked into these since leaving elementary for homeschool ages ago. In college now.

[@rosett1032]

YES, I had those in elementary too, I was almost always in top 3. Almost got the biggest prize one away. That's what happens when you have pretty much 2very family member donating. Good cause, got bored of the idems quickly thogh

[@dawrushesin]

OH MY GOD JUMP ROPE FOR HEART

[@nuclear_bonsai]

Holy shit I remember that. I don't remember kids getting prizes for the fundraiser part, but I remember the runathon that was always on Valentine's. Running a lap you got a stamp on your hand and whoever ran the most amount of laps would get something (i forget what). I remember they would give us t-shirts that had the slogan of something like "Love your heart, treat it smart!"

[@Delorcious]

All I can remember from those catalogs is being pissed that the one upper middle class kid who had a parent that worked for the school always won. Like you aren't winning with a poor family and no neighbors

[@Spaghet-bn3kb]

I never considered how manipulative these were until recently. Our school’s band was asked to play at a local elementary school’s pep rally that just turned out to be a fundraising assembly. They went all out with the cafeteria decorations and the administrators were wearing costumes. They were pitting the classes against each other in a competition of money-making, except they weren’t selling anything. They expected these children to beg their families for donations in exchange for a chance to see the principal get a pie in the face or something. It was so sad to see the children being manipulated like that and you don’t realize it when you’re that young. At our school, we don’t do anything like that. The schools and clubs do share nights, where, for a certain amount of time, they partner with a local restaurant so that they get 20% or so of the payment for every meal purchased when the customer mentions the organization. It works great because people can get things they actually want while supporting a good cause and the selling/advertising isn’t a burden on children/families.

[@AerynKDesigns]

Can confirm I was the kid who did not "get" to participate and was left behind on all these. My parents couldnt' afford the items, even the yummy looking food, and I had no availability to sell them due to my disabilities. It was just as disappointing and penalizing as the book faire. Always looking at catalogues, picking out what I'd like, and in reality getting nothing at all.

[@Ghost-bv9uj]

That sucks D:

[@kateecalhoun6]

well, I worked my butt off work what seemed like weeks to just get a stupid light up ring. I understand you might feel you missed out but really, you got saved.

[@ytgytgy]

for what its worth fundraising isn't the experience you think you missed out on

[@KandiBabyy]

I JUST started this video, but I’m so happy you made one on this topic… During fundraiser assemblies, I remember being absolutely SET on taking the “LIMO RIDE TO CHUCK E CHEESE” or spending “5 MINUTES IN THE MONEY BLOWING MACHINE” afterwards!!!! Getting home, I’d realize with the amount of kids in my neighborhood- there’d be no way to even win the first tier prizes. The amount of fundraisers schools tried to do became ridiculous. Went from one fundraiser a year to 2 or 3! Every time my parents ended up buying random things just so I’d be able to participate in the limo rides, etc. SMH….

[@softwaifu]

My mom was the parent volunteer treasurer at my school, she basically made these fundraisers happen, and I remember trying to explain my anticapitalist reasons for refusing to participate at like 9 😅 - she wasn't happy about it.

[@SuprousOxide]

How much was the school's return after paying for the junk products, and the catalog company took their share? 20%? 10? Can't have been much. Such a waste of money and time

[@placeholderdoe]

Ahead of the curve

[@loverrlee]

Thank you for mentioning the poor kids who couldn’t sell things. I never remember getting any prize that was at all memorial. I was one of those kids whose parents couldn’t afford to buy anything and my mom didn’t even work at an office so she also didn’t go out of her way to help me meet any of the goals, which is something I remember other kids specifically bragging about how their parents helped sell a bunch of orders from their work or church or whatever. I later got to become a Girl Scout and sell cookies, which was pretty fun because at least I was selling them with my friends, but I think the only prize we got there was a couple iron on badges. So thanks for thinking of us poor kids. ❤

[@arielbearden6076]

I think these fundraisers altered my brain’s chemistry as a kid. I was TERRIBLE about forgetting to tell my parents about them until the day before the deadline, or pretending I was going to try just to procrastinate myself into a corner. When I DID try to sell to people myself, it caused so much anxiety that I would end up absolutely spiraling and crying on a stranger’s doorstep. I was the kid who didn’t go to the party in the gym, and yes. It was as sad and embarrassing as you would imagine. And now as an adult, I cannot imagine being convinced to join an MLM, because I would feel like I was constantly participating in one of these fundraisers.

[@coocat5]

I remember one time I participated in one of these in kindergarten and I got enough to get a pair of necklaces that said "best friends" in a heart when put together. I tried to give one to my best friend at the time and she said no thanks.

[@twasadream496]

Oof

[@awcolorcat]

I live in the US and never heard of these before! In middle school, the orchestra and band did sell boxes of oranges though! There were no incentives other than the teachers being like "PLEASE DO IT WE NEED MONEY"

[@Jerebee-DS]

At least with oranges people got the product sooner than they would buying from these catalogs 💀

[@WahooYahoo]

The most fundraiser thing I had to do was in church but I liked the chocolates so much I kept like half lmao -

[@WatchVidsMakeLists]

You are at the forefront of what is sure to be a rise in 2000s (zeros? oughts?) nostalgia, and I'm absolutely here for it.

[@LilyLewis771]

I guess I’m lucky I was always way too socially anxious to do this, the thought of going door to door was mortifying. But it’s weird how much the school pushed the coupon books they wanted us to sell, creepy.

[@lacytaylor1501]

The two most frustrating things in school for me as a kid were fundraisers and school field trips because I was one of those kids from a low income family, had social anxiety, and on top of it all was the classroom punching bag for my classmates who relentlessly bullied me. I still recall once where the school did a field trip and I believe it had a fee for admission to where they went. They called for the students who were going and I watched as all but me and one other girl from a 25 or so student class left. Anytime there was a need for money for a school related thing I could never partake, in a class that I was already pretty ostracized from due to bullying, which only fed the bullies more stuff to laugh at me over, it just was incredibly frustrating.

[@NPGLAMB]

This was such a big thing that even my rural elementary school had them That school probably had only 100 kids or less and where were we supposed to sell them? We lived in the middle of nowhere with no neighborhoods and dirt roads 😂

[@xx_koneka_xx6297]

Hi! "Outlier" here lol, but I was one of the kids who's parent wouldn't let me participate in these things. I can confirm that at the time it was a huge bummer seeing kids I knew going on limo rides to arcades and restaurants, or even winning fun prizes I thought looked cool. But now with hindsight, my mother was not only still in college, but was unable to afford even an apartment, and had little to no free time to herself, I now understand why she didn't let me participate in these lol

[@moonlover594]

My middle school band class had a candy fundraiser. We were banned from selling it in school, but like the little future drug dealers we were, we would break that rule. I remember sneaking candy to a friend while they hand me a five during lunch. Or just selling them out in the open in class with the teachers not really caring. It was an astounding success, but we only did it for that one year. I wonder why? 🤔

[@zyphex_Memer]

Yeah

[@zyphex_Memer]

Yea

[@C.K.Productions]

Lmao same, we were told to put the chocolate bars into ziploc bags so our backpacks wouldn’t smell like chocolate.

[@druelia9485]

I remember the guy doing those events at our school would tell us to have our parents take the catelogs into"the office" and that we could go door to door in our neighborhood. I always wondered if he even looked around on his drive in--we were in a tiny little farm town where the population was less than 1000..... And I didn't know what he meant by "the office". Mom was a disabled SAHM and dad was an overnight security guard who had one Co worker at most. Who was he gonna ask to buy, the criminals he found trespassing? And like I said, it was a FARM TOWN... very few adults even had "office" jobs so it wasn't like my family was an exception to the rule. Even as a little kid I could see those guys peddling these events were super out of touch.

[@ErisIsAnAbomination]

Absolutely hated these when I was in elementary school. I was way too young to understand what was going on, but my father lost his job during that time and we didn’t have a lot of disposable income. Not being able to participate and seeing my classmates get big prizes was bad enough, but the fundraiser at my school was also attached to a medical charity and I felt legitimately guilty that I couldn’t make money for the cause.

[@radisk5973]

I have a distinct memory of one of these events where the highest prize was an iPad. No one won an iPad through sales but the company donated an iPad to a random kid and I was so jealous.

[@KholEllsworth]

My grandma would look at the prizes, roll her eyes and see the weird fun day one, buy that many items which for my middle school was like 25 items to the 30 I think, and look at the big prize and just be like "I'll buy it for you. " one year it was a 3DS xL and the next year it was an iPad touch. She spoiled me and by the time it was my 8th grade year, she was annoyed and gave me money and was like "why am i still getting this magazine?" What a weird time for sure. I was lucky but, I felt bad for my friends who did feel excluded and when it came to the technology you'd win it'd always be the lowest GB too.

[@Slap_Pappy]

My school had lots of fundraisers all through highschool, except they were mostly just chocolate bars or baked goods.

[@liamisconfused]

This reminds me of the time my little brother came home from school a few years ago with one of these, I believe it was some plant company. The prizes on the paper given out to the kids were relatively normal, but I noticed this prize for the person who sold the most items; either a PS5 or kindle fire. I know that we weren't going to be the ones to get it, but I was somewhat surprised (especially since PS5s were sold out EVERYWHERE). A month or two passes. Turns out, the top prize was actually a $10 dairy queen gift card. I think there was some fine text (If memory serves, I think the top seller in the entire COUNTY got the "top prize") but still feels scummy :/

[@WackoMcGoose]

Yeeeaaah, I'm fairly sure my school district even tried forcing the high schoolers to participate (yes, _forcing,_ as in "either you prove you at least tried to go sell shit, or go to detention"). Granted, I live in a rural district and there were plenty of fucked up rules, like "prom is for seniors only and you can't show up alone, you must show up with a date (of the opposite gender, btw) or we rip up your ticket in front of you" and "if you live within one road-mile of the school, you must walk to school; if you live more than one road-mile away, you're forbidden from walking and must take the bus or get permission from the district to have your parent drive you"...

[@alphaprobe20]

When I was in first grade we sold Christmas ornaments. The school assembly and the buy in from teachers made me really want to do it despite my parents not being excited about it in the least. I sold a few door to door in my (poor) neighborhood. One door I knocked on was the mother of some kids I played with in the neighborhood. I got the order, delivered the goods and didn’t get paid. I was the last holdout in the class. I got pulled aside every day about that ornament. My teacher called my parents which resulted in an earful from them about not wanting me to do it in the first place and that I wasn’t going to be able to get the money (keep in mind, i’m six years old). So I go over there every day to ask for the money. I get yelled at by the lady or get put off by her kids who tell me she can’t come to the door. I think I eventually just wore her out because she gave me the money after a couple of weeks. Maybe she got paid who knows. I never did anything like that again. Now I’m that parent who sells chocolate for my kid at my office!

[@Force-hiddenmasquerade]

Y’all went door to door? Man I just handed it to my mom and she just contacted family members to sell to At some point she was just like “why can’t we, the parents, just give the school some money? That’d be easier and you wouldn’t have to do this” and I had no answer for her

[@RosieV9669]

my mom was not having any of that, she handed us the phone, her book of family phone numbers, and she sat down to watch us to make sure we didn't basically force or beg for sales. If she felt nice, she'd take the catalog to work but only had her coworkers look through and just let her know IF they wanted anything

[@joylox]

I went to a school that was about $300/month, and we had to do those just to pay bills. There were a few wealthy business owners who would support us financially, but I remember one said he'd put up a billboard with no cost to us, as long as one of his kids got to be on it. Now there are enough kids that the tuition pays for all the bills, but I remember when there were less than 20 kids in a 3 grade classroom, and we did a lot of those catalogues. Flower bulbs, cookie dough, kitchen gear, pies... I do still use some of the kitchen stuff, including a lunch box I won, and a few nice plastic containers. But there really should be a better way than having kids ask people, or parents bring a book to work to make sure their kids have textbooks at school.

[@rosemulet]

“A middle aged man showcases plastic prizes while Dynamite by Taio Cruz plays in the background” why is this so superficial and accurate 😂

[@themeparksofamerica]

Fr

[@thatawesomenerdguy9661]

Yeah my parents never let me do this. They told me the toys are usually cheap and the company usually takes a cut of the money you raise. Not sure about the money thing but based on how scummy the whole thing seems I'd believe it.

[@mccringleberrytha3rd]

These were the worst of you were a low income kid 😭 I recall the only kids that reached some level of prizes were the kids whose parents would bring them to their offices. My working class parents couldn’t do such a thing.

[@thefreshprinceofdalaam2427]

lmaooo i was also a poor kid living in a scrappy apartment complex with my fellow poors and i wanted to go all entrepreneur with it and sell door to door so i too could be balling wearing all the little rubber ducks they gave you for selling cheap jewelry. luckily all the other kids were also poor but it's extremely funny to think of the adults in my life getting held at gunpoint at their restaurant job but still marketing like "but wait. are you interested in a AREA RUG my fine sir?"

[@LOVE-iv2pw]

Between this and Scolastic marketing to kids under the guise of “encouraging kids to read” via book fairs, clubs, catalog flyers, etc.

[@aCrAzEdFiSh]

I live in New Zealand and they have that here too. lol

[@LOVE-iv2pw]

@@aCrAzEdFiSh I live in Canada and scholastic is still a pretty big company with a pretty big presence. Everything I remember buying from there came with a bonus. powerpuff girl rings, knock-off beyblades, an invisible ink pen, the list goes on. the only things I bought for the actual books were the “Official Pokémon Handbooks” that are actually riddled with incorrect information to a comedic level.

[@brambleheart]

I remember doing these fundraisers in grade 3 in Canada, except they were magazines, and you had to get your neighbours/family to subscribe. One of the prizes for 5 subscriptions was a Webkinz tiger. My mom saw through their idea and said we couldn’t do it. Another kid got the tiger. He was really nice about it but I was sad. Now I realize my mom could have gotten it online with less effort lol

[@NoahClevinger]

A new Dream Jelly video on the weekend is just what I needed. Congrats on all of your recent success!! Your channel is very entertaining.

[@theidiotnamedjay5501]

Thas what Im saying, Dream Jelly is becoming one of my new favs, they’re commentary and editing and voice is just such a good combo!

[@dreamyjellies]

Thank you so much! It’s always nice seeing you around the comments :)

[@pickleslap]

I remember feeling so guilty and uncomfortable having to ask my family to order for these

[@ScatteredCollector]

In my elementary school days, I was Cherrydale Farms best “seller” - my mother and grandmother took those catalogs to their jobs and their coworkers went crazy and ordered from it. From kindergarten to 8th grade, I was one of their favorites, even so much that every year the same presenter came to my elementary and middle school and recognized me by face! Best 9 years of a free limo ride and a free buffet lunch

[@CharlesM2]

They do have fundraisers in high schools too! 4-5 years back my music program did a chocolate bar program and I actually won out on the sales and got a giant bag of 1000 gummy bears. Funnily enough though I actually liked the chocolate we had to sell, and bought a decent portion for myself (I had a job, and this probably skewed my sales to win but at least it was helping out something I cared about)