TV game shows have been a huge success for many years. Dating back to the 1970’s and 80’s with The Price is Right, Jeopardy, and Family Feud - more recent crazes include Do You Want To Be A Millionaire, Deal or No Deal, and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. All of these game shows have a few things in common - contestants, a host, prizes, challenges, anticipation, and humor.
A game show event makes a great fund raiser or simply a school spirit event. Here are some tips to plan an evening where people can laugh out loud with their friends, family, teachers, and principal.
Design your own game or stylize it after a popular game show. Make the game your own by implementing your own set of rules and time limits. Organize the game in a way that several people can participate. For instance, in a Family Feud style game, have two teams of five players each compete against each other. If you have 3 rounds of play, then 6 different teams can play - that’s 30 people! You may want to play two or three different games throughout the evening and have a different host for each (but plan to keep the event to no more than two hours long). At least one of the games should be one where the contestants are randomly chosen from the audience. This will sell tickets and keep the audience interested and entertained at the anticipation of being chosen.
Include a mix of academic and fun questions and competition ideas submitted by both students and teachers. For instance, “Name something a hockey player has to put on before a gameâ€; “Name three types of cloudsâ€; or “Name a punctuation mark on a computer keyboardâ€.
Although your committee volunteers are the ones to make up the game rules and questions, the game show host is the person responsible for announcing the rules of the game to the audience and contestants and for keeping the game running smoothly and continuously. Remember if the game does not proceed steadily, the audience may get bored. The host of your game show has to be well-spoken, personable, quick-witted, and humorous. A high school aged student may be able to handle this role, but for middle and elementary school, we recommend an adult.
Reserve the school auditorium where the game show will take place. You will need a stage and seating for the audience. If possible have the event in a carpeted auditorium with stadium seating. Avoid a gym or cafeteria as the noise levels will detract from the event if the audience cannot hear the conversations on stage. Utilize microphones whenever possible.
Begin advertising 4 to 6 weeks in advance by distributing flyer’s to parents of all local schools and hanging flyers in visible locations at the school. Offer tickets for sale and request contestant sign-ups. Encourage every student to purchase a ticket, encourage parents to purchase tickets themselves and to sell to family and friends, and set up sale tables at student pick-up and drop-off locations, in the cafeteria during lunch hours, and at school sponsored events.
Sell tickets as an entrance fee to be part of the audience, keeping this cost under $5.00. Since the goal is to have as many audience members as possible, the lower the ticket price, the more likely you will fill the auditorium. Tickets can be sold in advance, but you can count on most of the tickets being sold at the door on the day of the event. Since it is more fun to laugh with the people you know, plan to sell tickets to students, friends, family and school staff.
In addition to ticket sales, sponsors are a key element in reaching your fund raising goal. You’ll want to obtain corporate sponsorships to offset the cost of the prizes, custodial fees, hall fee, food and beverage costs, ticket printing costs, and advertising costs. Recognize the sponsor’s generous donation at your fund raising event by publishing their name in promotional material.
Every game show offers prizes to its winning contestants. This will be one of the draws to selling tickets and filling the audience. Consider gift certificates to local restaurants, grocery stores, toy stores, or movie theaters, pre-paid phone cards, or even a free car wash by a group of students. Prizes should appeal to your audience. Be creative!
As with any event that has generated an audience, complement your event by selling soda, water, candy, pizza, or raffle tickets.
And finally, send thank you notes to sponsors and let your committee members know how much you appreciate their hard work. A letter can also be written to your local newspaper, along with photos, thanking everyone for a successful fund raiser. This will serve as additional publicity for sponsors as well as publicity for your event.
About the author: V. Blazejowski is the publisher of PTO Ideas, the site where parent-teacher organizations share school fund raising and program ideas. For more information on planning a game show and other fund raising events, visit PTO Ideas at http://www.ptoideas.com.
Article Source: Ezinearticles.com
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If your organization or school is looking for a new and exciting way to raise funds, try hosting a carnival with inflatable rentals. With inflatable obstacle courses, inflatable sumo wrestling, inflatable bungee basketball and many other fun inflatable games, setting up and taking down a carnival doesn’t need to be a big production. It’s well within your organization’s reach to net several thousand dollars over a night or a weekend with inflatable rentals and a carnival theme. For an amazing event, start planning early and keep these few tips and ideas in mind:
