Fun With Paint! A Festival Fundraiser, By Kids... For Kids.

Have you ever helped raise funds for a school or charity and wanted to get kids more directly involved? Here's a "make and take" art booth run by families and offered at a small fee for children to participate in.

It's not hard to organize, raises funds easily and provides a good time for all. To organize a booth like this, first select a festival time when lots of kids and families will be present. Then organize what art art activities you'll offer for your "make and take" art booth. Purchase your art materials, knowing you'll need to recouperate your cost and then make a fundraising profit. Select four to sixdifferent activities, knowing you'll let participants choose two or three activities for a certain dollar amount. Make sure they know these funds are going towards a good cause. On the day of the event, set up a pop-up tent if you have one, or find a way to display your colorful Fun with Paint banners around large portable tables. Put up signs and make your display colorful. The Color Spray Murals shown in these photos make wonderful display banners (find instructions here).

These booths were created by children from Wonderland Avenue Magnet School in Los Angeles, California. Two 5th grade classes ran the booths at a community arts festival for two days, with children and their families signing up for two hour "shifts" in the booth. The projects were selected from BioColor® and Liquid Watercolor™, and were chosen for being economical, fun, unusual and having a fast drying time. Most art projects were geared for children ages 3-10. To receive a list of tried and true art projects for this type of fundraiser, write to Anna Reyner, areyner@discountschoolsupply.com.

Often times fundraisers leave kids with dull jobs to do, such as stuffing bags or cleaning up. This creative fundraiser puts kids in charge and provides them the satisfaction of working with other children, teaching arts and crafts, and developing a sense of enterprise while having fun.