How does your rink fund raise ?

[luckeylasvegas]

Does anyone have any great fundraising ideas to offset the cost of competetions?

[Mrs Redboots]

It isn't easy - you do have to charge a realistic entry fee, since competitions really are expensive, what with ice time, judges' expenses, etc. But you can sell artificial flowers, carefully wrapped, and other novelties that people can buy to throw on to the ice for their skater and/or friends - and the younger ones adore being "flower girls" once they've competed. Some of the kids who aren't quite ready to compete get their first taste of skating before a crowd in a pretty frock by being flower girl - boys, too, of course, but they don't wear the pretty frocks! - and picking things up off the ice is quite an art.... one child at our National Championships could barely skate and kept sitting down when she tried to pick things off the ice, and got the loudest applause of the day at the end, bless her!

Sorry, got carried away there. So you can sell novelties - small teddies, stuffed hearts, flowers. You can also persuade local skating shops or mail-order suppliers to "take a table" (charging them for the privilege, of course) to sell skating novelties, tights, and even dresses.

Our club always runs a tombola - people donate loads of prizes, mostly small like cakes of soap or some coloured pencils or party favours, but one or two really nice things. All new, not 2nd-hand, no matter how cheap or expensive. You get a book of cloakroom tickets, then stick the ones ending in a 0 or a 5 on the prizes, then put *all* the 2nd halves, not just the prize ones, into a box, carefully folding them so the number can't be seen (our tombola person always rolls them up and inserts them into cut-up pieces of drinking-straw, coercing her family into helping with that, but if life's too short you can just fold them in 4). You then charge people so much per ticket, and a slightly reduced amount for 5 tickets. They open them up, and if they have one that ends in a 0 or a 5 (if you're really mean, you just have the ones ending in 0, but you can charge more if it's a 1-in-5 chance), they win the prize that has that ticket on it, whether it's a bath cube or a pair of ice-skates!

If some of your club members are keen on baking, have them bake trays of little cakes, and sell them to the punters. Get a couple of the kids to run a lemonade stall.... that sort of stuff.

Hope these ideas help. They *won't* cover your costs - you will have to charge a very realistic entry fee to the competition - but they might help the club not make a loss!

[luckeylasvegas]

Thanks: but I was thinking more of how skaters raise money for their competetion costs. Our rink travels to several ISI competetions in California and usally go to ISI Worlds so we spend alot of money on traveling.

[Mrs Redboots]

Oh, I see. I'm afraid that unless skaters can get commercial sponsorship - a rarity - they, or their parents, just have to shell out. Of course, we don't have quite the distances to travel that you do, and many skaters only compete in their own area, although the elites have to travel to do their required international....

[Isk8NYC]

I guess if it's a team entry, as in a precision or the like, you could have a bake sale or something. I'm not sure how careful you need to be now with fund-raising. The USFS was very strict at one time, but I think they've loosened up somewhat.


What about having a t-shirt design contest, choosing the best design, and selling t-shirts with the design on them?

[twokidsskatemom]

We have to travel to compete anywhere, we just got back from an ISI 400 miles from here.If our kids want to go to worlds, its just like regionals from here, since we have to fly outside.
If its a group of kids, maybe a bake sale or candy sale?maybe a rink sponsered pizza sale? I know some kids from anchorage are going to worlds, but we are saving pennies from regionals in a few years!!
good luck !! :)

[AshBugg44]

We often sell cookie dough and cheesecakes, and candy bars too. This year the synchro team did a Skate-A-Thon where they just did laps for two hours and got pledges - either a flat donation or a per-lap pledge. They had a limit of 200 laps so that no one could do an absolutely outrageous number of laps. I think they raised quite a good bit of money from it.

[luckeylasvegas]

Thanks Ashbug I was thinking of a skate-a-thon too but couldn't decide on how to go about it. I was also thinking of a spaghetti dinner and skate show.
We'd sell tickets and people would get to eat dinner first, Pasta , Salad, and Garlic bread, and the kids would do a skate show and then have dessert.
Does that sound like a good idea ?

[MannyisHOT]

YA! I would do that at my club for a fund raiser!

[CanAmSk8ter]

I know lots of synchro teams do fundraising to offset costs- selling cookie dough, Avon, cheesecakes, etc.- but I've never heard of the kind of thing you're describing, a group of individual skaters doing fundraising. Is this something that's more common in the West and Midwest? I know ISI is bigger out there. But I've never heard of a rink trying to fundraise for their ISI kids.

[luckeylasvegas]

My daughter skates at a very small rink and most of the kids go to the same competetions and have the same coach. We've only done one fund raiser so far selling Dominoe's pizza cards and we put the money towards the coach's cost for the next competetion. We travel to 3 -5 + competetions a year in California because there are so few rinks in Las Vegas, and we try to go to worlds. Last year it was Minnesota the year before that it was Chicago this year we are lucky that it is in California so at least we don't need to fly.
if we can raise $200 - $500 per girl it would offset the hotel cost for worlds.

[twokidsskatemom]

My daughter skates at a very small rink and most of the kids go to the same competetions and have the same coach. We've only done one fund raiser so far selling Dominoe's pizza cards and we put the money towards the coach's cost for the next competetion. We travel to 3 -5 + competetions a year in California because there are so few rinks in Las Vegas, and we try to go to worlds. Last year it was Minnesota the year before that it was Chicago this year we are lucky that it is in California so at least we don't need to fly.
if we can raise $200 - $500 per girl it would offset the hotel cost for worlds.


try living in alaska :) we cant drive to any comps but local.

[luckeylasvegas]

You Win twokids ! :giveup:

[twokidsskatemom]

All I meant was going to comps down there at least is very drivable.Lv is close to az which has a ton, along with calf which also has a ton.You are within driving range of lots of very well known Comps.We would love if we lived within a 8 hour drive of those big places. Lv also has some well known coaches.I understand that you want to make it more afforable for kids to go, but you are so close to lots of places.Some kids, including those in alaska, dont have those same choices.For us to go to worlds, it would run at least 2500 in airfair alone without a coach.For any comps, we have to travel outside the state.We cant drive.Regionals this year for us is in jackson Hole wy.Pretty spendy in air alone.
In any case, You have to be careful as Isi isnt run the same as USFSA. You cant get a non profit status with IsI, so its harder to get donations.But I liked the dinner.show idea if your skaters are strong enough to support it.
:)

[little_huskie]

another good idea to fundraise is to collect coins from people whilst doing a skate-a thon eg 10p or 20p pieces and tape them to the board the whole way around the rink, with the aim of making a complete 60x90m circuit. We raised loads of money this way, and the local tv cameras even came to see us to do it! :lol:

[Mrs Redboots]

We did a charity fund-raiser a couple of years ago; the rink owners and the management company both gave a certain amount for each skater who came into the rink, another company gave a certain amount for each skater dressed in red (This was a national fund-raiser, called Red Nose Day, so dressing in red is important). The rest of us offered face-painting and hair-streaking (the kind that washes out next morning!) for a fee, again, it all went to charity. I had my face painted as it was all in a good cause but regretted it as my skin reacted badly!

We also made a chain on the ice - it was led by one of our skater's sisters, who is a wheelchair user, and then everybody else lined up behind her, hands on the waist of the person in front, like a conga line.... that was fun, too.

[luckeylasvegas]

Twokids I wasn't saying you win to be snotty. You really do win. I can't imagine having to go all that way for a competetion. This will be our first trip to worlds. I told our coach that I was not willing to fly my daughter to compete when she was not even in a freestyle level. Now that she is in fresstyle 4 and the worlds are in Cali it's a good chance to give them a try.
I'm still not sure we'll go next year when I can take a cruise for the same amount of money.

[twokidsskatemom]

:) :)
Well the good thing is that regionals are here every 6 years or so. Our rink has a isi comp, the other rink in town has the usfsa comps and we can drive to Anchorage which is 400 miles for a few more in a year. But to go to the big comps ie the Fiesta skate in az, the golden west in la, takes alot.We have a skater from our rink who wants to go to worlds. For us, we would rather wait till our skater is better and go to regionals.
Btw, what rink are you out of? I know david nickel is out of vegas, and Jill shipstad thomas is out of reno. Both Great coaches.I had heard that Bonaly was down there to.

Maybe a car wash?

[luckeylasvegas]

She skates at the Athletic Arts Academy which is owned by the Foy family.
The Foy's do all the "flying" for stage productions like Peter Pan , here they also fly Celine Dion in her show. Her coach is Vassili Mourzine and we love him ! He ia a former Russian National Champion. There are only two other rinks in town, the new one at the Fiesta hotel (very far from us) and the now reopened Las Vegas ice center. I know Bonaly coached at a rink that has been closed for a few years, I'm not sure if she is coaching at either of the other two rinks.

[phillyskater]

I'm on the Board of Directors at my skating club and we do several fundraisers a year. We just sold Joe Corbi's pizza kits and cookie dough. About 20 people partcipated and we profited over $2,000. A couple years ago we made over $3,000 from the same sale (more participants). The stuff is really easy to sell. Check out www.joecorbis.com for more information and to see if it's available in your area. The profit margin per kit sold is really good -- like $5.00 or more.

We also do things like bake sales during hockey tournaments (so we have a different audience spending money) and raffles. We had a raffle during a recent ice show that raised over $500. People donated things like restaurant gift certificates, free Pilates equipment, etc. and we charged $1 per ticket.

Car washes and other things in the community are a great idea. How about a bake sale or something at a local grocery store or mall? We were also thinking about starting up weekly Bingo (there is apparently a big following for this), but check your state laws on gambling to see what's allowed first.

Hope that helps!

phillyskater

[fadedstardust]

I know Bonaly coached at a rink that has been closed for a few years, I'm not sure if she is coaching at either of the other two rinks.

Yes, she does. I THINK it's called...something garden? Garden something? I forget. But she does coach and live out in Vegas. She coaches in Lake Arrowhead sometimes as well, and does amazing choreography.

[twokidsskatemom]

faded
I think you mean the Ice garden and from what I could tell its closed.I know two years or so ago she was down there, as someone from here went down there for some coaching.I did a search but cant find out which rink if any she is coaching out of now.
We would love to go down to reno for some training. :idea: Hit the lotto !!

I did find the rink at the Station,The one at Ceasars, the one named above, and one called Las vegas ice center that had a ton of freestyle time.Couldnt find any coaches listed.

[fadedstardust]

twokidsskatemom- Maybe I am mistaken on the name then, but I'm positive she was coaching out in Vegas as recently as a month and a half ago. Granted she is gone very often. I will try to find out what rink it is if anyone is interested. :)

[twokidsskatemom]

I would love to know if you do run across where she is at :)

[Aurora]

Many parents/skaters at our club volunteer at bingos. At our old club, everyone had to do 4 bingos a year to off-set costs. At our new club, you can chose to do bingos or not. If you want to do them, each bingo you do (average about $50.00) gets credited quarterly to your own skater at your club and the credit is applied to your monthly bill.

One quarter, with the help of family/friends I had a $500.00 credit. It's easy work and they always give you a meal allowance too for $8.00. And it's tax free.

[twokidsskatemom]

Many parents/skaters at our club volunteer at bingos. At our old club, everyone had to do 4 bingos a year to off-set costs. At our new club, you can chose to do bingos or not. If you want to do them, each bingo you do (average about $50.00) gets credited quarterly to your own skater at your club and the credit is applied to your monthly bill.

One quarter, with the help of family/friends I had a $500.00 credit. It's easy work and they always give you a meal allowance too for $8.00. And it's tax free.
But the issue the op has is that with isi, there is no club.ISI isnt a non profit, which is what the usfsa clubs are.The rink itself is ISI.

[bladebabe69]

to raise money for our club so we could have a carnival is we had a skate-a-thon where everyone went out and found sponsors some people raised over 300 dollars for it and what we did is we raised money for it then we had it so that if u raised money you could come out and skate for an hour and a half and have anybody they wanted come a skate with them and it was really fun!! its quick and easy to raise money!!

[VegasGirl]

I know this thread is a bit older but in case you were still wondering where Surya Bonaly skates and, as far as I know, coaches it is indeed at the Las Vegas Ice Center ( www.lasvegasice.com ). I skate there and have seen her numerous times.