Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

The Community School is looking forward to the day when Richard Russo will come to their school to read from his latest novel, “Bridge of Sighs“. Russo will read from the book two months earlier than its scheduled publication date. The reading by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Emmy-nominated novelist and screenwriter is a fund-raiser for the Community School in Camden.

But the Community School is especially interested in hearing about a particular character in his latest novel becuase he shares the same name as a resident of the town, Josa A. Ocariz. Last year the school held a raffle that reached across the nation. The prize: the winner’s name would be used in Russo’s latest novel as a character.

The raffle sold 78 tickets and Ocariz purchased two of the tickets. One of those tickets was the winner, and his name was included in Russo’s latest novel. He is included in the novel and his character is a middle school teacher in upstate New York.

The school raised $7,800 from the raffle event. Tickets for the reading are $20. Russo’s book will officially be published on September 25th.

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Do you have used books but you don’t want to run a book sale?

If you are a library, school or community group then you may have old books on hand. Sometimes running a used book sale is not convenient, as you need to have volunteers to coordinate the sale and organize the books. Blue Rectangle offers an alternative way you can fund-raise with your books.

By using Blue Rectangle, you are simply selling your books to them in buy-back program. They in turn are then selling your books to consumers.

This fund-raiser is simple and easy to follow

The steps to run this fund-raiser are very basic. “It is really simple, just go online to our website and then fill out your organization’s name and address. Then select a method of payment — its super simple! Create an account with us this way and then enter the ISBN (for the books you are selling to Blue Rectangle).” said Chris Cahill, Customer Service Representative. Literally hundreds of schools and other organizations have worked with Blue Rectangle. They have been in business for about ten years. They have been doing the book buy-back business for three years.

What books are they interested in purchasing? Cahill encourages interested not-for-profits to look at the F.A.Qs page on the website for further details about what type of books they are interested in purchasing. “We are especially interested in textbooks, how-to books, books that have been published in the last ten years and generally books that have an isbn but are either out of print or are hard to come by,” said Cahill

Blue Rectangle according to their F.A.Qs page is not interested in purchasing books with odors, book club books, encyclopedias, magazines, Time-Life books, Teacher’s editions, books in poor condition, condensed books (such as Reader’s Digest), advanced reading copies, corrected proofs, workbooks with writing in them, books marked not for resale, books missing a section of the cover, books with any profanity in them, pornography, and unbound or partially bound books.

They suggest that customers send books that they consider are at least in very good to excellent condition. This means no water damage, no missing covers or pages and minimal highlighting or tearing on the pages.

Blue Rectangle purchases books depending on market demand for the books

Prices for books depend on the current interest for the book. “We buy the books in order to resell them so our buyback is based on market demand,” said Cahill. When you input your ISBNs into the website, you will be given a price. That price is then good for five days. After five days that price is subject to change. You are encouraged to send your books in quickly. Payments are sent to customers on a weekly basis.

When shipping books to Blue Rectangle you are encouraged to obtain insurance for your package. Insurance should not be very expensive, and this protects you from any damages or loss while in transit to the facility.

Blue Rectangle is an excellent alternative for the organization that is unable to hold a book sale but has plenty of books that they would like to turn into fund-raising dollars. Visit their website for more information.

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Sam Hutchinson’s dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Matt Hutchinson, a local police officer, felt common symptoms of ms such as numbness in his body. He lost the use of one side of his body for an entire month.

Fortunately Sam was supported by her friends and classmates at Lincon Heights Public School in Waterloo, Canada. The 6th grade student was inspired to raise funds for the MS Society through the charity’s annual MS Readathon and she asked her school and classmates to join her. They readily agreed.

The school of 340 students dove in to support Hutchinson. They worked hard to raise $10,665.89. This placed them in the top five of all the provinces for all donations raised for this fund-raiser. Hutchinson herself raised more than $1,000.

Hutchinson was honored for her charitable work as one of the recipients of the Victoria D’Agostino award at school. This annual award is given to a student who has made a significant contribution to society and their community.

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Blackhawk Middle School students in the Writers and Illustrators Club entered the Kids are Authors Scholastic Book Competition. Their book, “Wick Galavants the Globe,” is a book about the alphabet that teaches the reader about famous landmarks, countries and of course, breeds of dogs found all around the world. Their book was chosen as one of the top 25 in the country out of more than 8,000 entries. The Fort Wayne, Indiana students won $500 thatcould be spent on new resources for the school’s library.

The Writers and Illustrators Club is now selling their book as a fund-raiser for the club. The book is available for $10. The students enjoyed writing the book so much they are now planning their next book. Write on!

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