The following letter was sent to all Families covering the content of the video.
South Middle School Families,
I want to provide an update on our Yearbook fundraiser so far. Since our kickoff assembly We have raised a little over $4500 towards our goal, which is roughly a third of the way to covering our costs for a yearbook for every student. While we were hoping to be further along at this point, I’m encouraged by the fact that those donations are from about 5% of our student body.
In the past, the trend is that only about half of our students were able to pay for a yearbook at cost. The core mission of the South yearbook is to tell the story of our kids and to showcase their talents and experiences. The goal of this fundraiser is to make that story and product accessible to ALL students when they leave at the end of the year.
What we’ve done so far this year is modify some components of the yearbook to cut costs without sacrificing the quality of the contents. Our yearbook sponsor Dr. Mattingly and I decided on a softcover with a hard spine to accomplish that goal. This allows the number of pages we want to put out without the higher cost of a full hardback cover, but with more stability than a staple-only binding like many smaller elementary yearbooks are designed.
At the current moment, if we raise no more money, every child will still receive a yearbook for this year, but the financial setback will impact the cost and availability for other activities and incentives we hope to offer. We aren’t afraid to try new things and take risks here at South in the spirit of helping our students, but we have to be ready to make financially responsible pivots when necessary.
Throughout the process this year, our students have been at the center of making flyers, promotional materials, planning, and running the related events. We are proud of all the work the yearbook staff has done so far. Given the investment of their time and effort, we have decided to move the date of our Walk-a-thon event back several weeks to allow for more time to collect funds and ensure a successful event.
Our new event date for the Walk-a-thon is Friday, April 11th.
Look for more information on the activities that day to come soon. It will be an all-day event (no regular classes) including the outdoor walking course, indoor crafts and games, and the fundraising prize ceremony in the gym at the end.
Please consider making a donation to help cover the cost of our yearbook effort at the link below to cover as much of the cost as you are able.