Here at SchoolLockers.com, we see lots and lots of lockers going out out doors and occasionally we will notice orders that stand out from the usual large orders of school lockers, metal lockers and even the small, single order of kids lockers.
So as we were looking, we noticed that there was one client in particular that was ordering really bright, colorful metal lockers once a year. Not hundreds of them, but only about six to 10--and at the same time, each year, for the past five years...
Her name is Kathy Cartwright and what she had been doing with these metal lockers was nothing short of pretty darn cool.
Ms Cartwright is a member of the St. Mark's Private School PSC Board. She has previously served in the capacity of president, vice president and is currently the treasurer. Well what she does with these lockers was impressive.
"Our biggest fundraiser for St. Mark's private school is our Fall Fiesta which occurs the first weekend in October every year. This has been going on for at least ten years since I have been there," Cartwright explains. "And I’ve been on the St Marks Board so I’ve been in charge of the furniture over the last five years."
And what Kathy looks for is things that will SELL.
"I try to get things that will be auctioned off for a lot of money because the Fall Fiesta itself, we usually make somewhere between $70,000 and $100,000 dollars and the furniture part of the auction usually brings in somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars depending on who is bidding on which pieces of furniture," said Cartwright.
Each year St. Mark's holds their Fall Fiesta which is a fundraising effort to provide the school with things it, and it's students, need.
"So all of the proceeds go right back into the school and we use it for computers, for smart boards for all the classrooms, for a security system for the school, those little wood chips in the playground in the back so that if kids fall off monkey bars and stuff, they don’t break their arms, we use it for awnings and whatever the principal and administration determines they need the funds to go to, they say what they want the funds to go for," explains Cartwright. "So they may say $30,000 for smart boards, $10,000 for an alarm system upgrade—whatever it might be, but it has to be something that touches all of the children in the school and then it goes before all the PSC members for a vote for how the money is spent. But a hundred percent of the profits go directly back to the school."
This brings us to why SchoolLockers.com began noticing her orders. What she was doing is ordering six to ten metal lockers of individual colors so parent volunteers could take them home, decorate them, and bring them back to the Fall Fiesta so they could be auctioned off and raise money for the St. Mark's school.
"They’ve turned SchoolLockers.com metal lockers into nightstands, into bathroom shelving, the parent volunteers have turned them into sports themed kids lockers, there has been a Texas Tech, a University of Texas one and they’ve made them super cool, said Cartwright. "One parent volunteer turned a metal locker into a wizardry themed idea."
Having parent volunteers conceptualize and decorate lockers for the auction has proven to be very successful--so much so, once she came up with the ingenious idea, she never looked back.
"I’ve been in charge of the furniture part of the auction for at least the past five years. So I’ve bought lockers from SchoolLockers.com for the past five years and I buy SchoolLockers.com lockers because I love your lockers and the colors are fantastic and it is something super fun and easy for parent volunteers to make them super cool."
The fundraising idea is simple. She buys the lockers, gives them to volunteers and they take it from there!
"I give one to each of the teachers and they give it to some of the parent volunteers who volunteer for the classroom to decorate and one year I bought an orange tall metal locker and the mom in charge of that went to University of Texas and had gone and turned the whole locker into a University of Texas locker with magnetic decorations and longhorns all over them and put stuff inside the metal locker that the kids could use and I had someone else turn one of the blue short metal lockers into a bathroom application so all the kids could store their stuff in the bathroom."
Cartwright freely admits that despite the success she has enjoyed with these colorful metal lockers, the kids lockers aren't for every age group.
"For example for the 2-year-olds I do picnic tables and for the 4-year-olds I do TV nightstands kind of things and for the 5-year-olds I did bookshelves and typically for any of the 5th, 6th or up through 8th grade, I do the lockers because the lockers are really popular."
All of us here at SchoolLockers.com have seen plenty of giveaways and prizes, however having volunteers decorate, then auction off these metal lockers is certainly one fundraising idea which is new to us!
Kathy, we thank you for your purchases over the years and look forward to supplying you and the good folks at St. Mark's with more kids lockers in the future!
For more information on St Mark's, CLICK HERE
