Selling (and buying) chocolate, Christmas trees, plants, grocery gift cards, or even frozen pizza, it’s fine and it pays, but... have parents’ associations thought of raising funds by donating their time?

That’s what some parents in the Société de la petite enfance de l’école Entre-lacs, which manages the Prématernelle Pomme-Soleil, are doing in Penticton.

Some of the parent members of this association are occasionally found behind the counter serving food and drinks during performances at the South Okanagan Events Centre. In exchange, they receive ten per cent of the proceeds from the sale of food and soft drinks, and five per cent from the sale of alcohol. The chance to put on a T-shirt promoting their preschool centre not only gives them good visibility in their community, it also means that they can pocket all the tips.

Depending on the popularity of the event taking place, the Director of Food and Beverage Services points out that a non-profit organization can raise between $100 and $700 during a three-and-a-half-hour evening of work.

The association invited to deliver this catering service must be trained for about an hour, and volunteers who will be working behind the counter must take the Serving It Right course online and obtain their certificate. The fees might not seem to be worth it, but if we focus seriously on this fundraising and participate in it regularly, it becomes very interesting.

There may be an event organizer in your community to whom you could propose this initiative. For large gatherings, it’s not always easy to hire personnel for just a single evening. So this can be a perfect opportunity for parent volunteers to get together in a friendly atmosphere, and at the same time, replenish their nest egg.

Finally, the addition of parking attendants, or people responsible for cleaning up after the event, would obviously contribute to further enriching an organization keen to raise funds to invest in their school or preschool service.