Fete Profile – Big Hill Primary School

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Big Hill Primary School Fete

Name: Crystal Beynon
School: Big Hill Primary School
Event Date: 14 March 2014 from 5pm – 8pm
How many students attend your school? 380
Approximately how many people attended your fete? At least 1000

 Big Hill Fete

PLANNING

  • Did you have a theme? No
  • How did you set a date? Always in the first term, in March sometime, based around school photos
  • How many organising committee roles were there and what were they? Our P&F is very small. I am the president and oversaw everything. People do not realise how much goes into a school fete. We don’t have a treasurer either. The school takes care of the money as we don’t have a separate account.
  • Have you ever been involved in organising an event like this before? No
  • What unique attraction/activity did you have that set you apart from other fetes in your area? We had a rock climbing wall and a kids bungy trampoline, it was the first in Bendigo at a school fair. The police and firemen also came down to display their vehicles and talk to the kids.

SPONSORSHIP

  • How much money did you raise from sponsorship? $300
  • How did you go about it? We wrote up a proposal with different packages and only one fencing company donated $300. There is a very big private school in Bendigo and they get a lot of the sponsorship support.
  • How this this compare to previous years? We had never tried to get sponsorship before. We had only ever raised money from the fair.
  • Do you have a sponsors’ tent? No
  • Do you have any advice for others seeking sponsorship?Try anyone that you can. We were a little bit limited at the time but in hindsight there are more businesses that we could have approached that we didn’t think of.

RIDES

  • How many rides did you have? 3 – rock climbing wall, kids bungy trampoline and a jumping castle.
  • Did you buy your rides outright or have a split percentage? Split percentage.
  • What was the price of your rides? $3.00
  • What was the price of your arm bands? No.

STALLS

  • Did you allow outside stall holders? Yes
  • If yes, how many did you have? 45
  • How much was your stall fee? $25 per stall and asked them to donate a prize to our spinning wheel.
  • List of side show alley stalls and prices Bobbing ducks, sandpit dig, show bags, the teachers organized throw the sponge at the teacher, mini golf, balloon toss – like coits with balloons
  • Most profitable stalls:We sell fair credit instead of all the stalls carrying cash. Fair goers buy a certain amount of fair credit at the front gate. People were walking around with credit and we also had more at the food stalls so that people could buy more instead of carrying money at the stalls themselves. Doing it this way was at the request of our last principal as he didn’t want cash all over the place. At a guess, the spinning wheel would have made the most money
  • Stalls you wouldn’t run again: Sandpit dig didn’t do as well as we thought it would, it was popular with the younger kids. The showbags weren’t very popular. It could be the variety of showbags or maybe the price as some people did complain about the price of them.

VOLUNTEERS

  • What is the best way that you have found to get people to volunteer their time? I don’t’ know but if anyone has a great idea I would like to hear it! I sent out notes every couple of days including a survey as to what people would be interested in helping with – Crystal will send me a copy.
  • Did you use an online roster? No.
  • Do you have a thank you dinner/party for your convenors? No.
  • How did you thank your volunteers? Everybody gets thank you notes – most people. Thank people in the newsletter and on the FB page.
  • Advice for others trying to recruit volunteers? Keep at it. Sometimes some things won’t appeal to someone but something else might. Find out what they are interested in as it usually works in your favour.

MARKETING

  • Describe any success you had with your publicity Our FB page was quite a good one and people posted on the day of the fete and got people from the other side of town interested and they came along. Flyers were letterboxed dropped by families in certain areas and a group of girls put them up in local businesses.
  • How did you promote your fundraiser? Social Media including Facebook. Letter Box drop. Flyers / Posters. Your own organisation’s newsletter/ email

PROVIDERS

  • Did you co-ordinate bulk supplies centrally? Eg. napkins, plates, cutlery, etc… Yes we did from Campbells Cash and Carry in Bendigo.

PROFIT/ WRAP UP

  • What was your fundraising goal? We didn’t have a set target but the money raised was going towards an extension to our gymnasium. No expectations of what we were going to raise.
  • How much money did you raise? $9,200
  • What would you do differently next year? We run it every second year. The main thing that I would do differently is to delegate and get a certain person to look after a particular stall and get them to run it all. Volunteer coordinator – have one on the night. Classes all take care of the one stall that they wanted to do. E.g. my youngest son’s class made placemats. The P&F run the food stalls, rides etc… then the teachers run separate stalls.
  • Is there anything you wish you had known before you started? How much commitment is needed for a fair. Wish I knew how important delegation was and how many people were needed to run it.
  • What is the best advice that you can give a fete convenor? Definitely delegate – have good people around you that you can delegate to. Have as many people as you can on board that can help you. You know the old saying…… Many hands make light work!

OTHER FUNDRAISERS

  • What other fundraisers do you have during the year? Easter raffle. Mother’s day stall. Mother’s day raffle – one book per family get sent home to kids. Pie drive. Christmas raffle. Bunnings BBQ. Election day BBQ. Melbourne shopping tour. Father’s Day stall. Father’s Day raffle. Fundraising lunches – a club in the area donates a certain percentage back to the school. Melbourne Cup Day BBQ – family fun day. Major fundraiser in conjunction with the fair……… raffle with a trip to Queensland through Australian Fundraising.

Originally published 19 April, 2019

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