Hold a hop centered on a theme like the oldies, country music or a luau, for example. Attendees donate to participate. Refreshments and snacks can be sold.

Students donate a minimum of $1 for the privilege of attending school out of uniform on a particular day. This same idea can apply to other special days like crazy hair day, pajama day, hat day, sunglasses day, crazy outfit day, and so on. 

Using canisters, vote via coins for teachers to receive a pie in the face. The top three teachers are chosen. This idea can also be used for having teachers kiss a frog, hold a snake, and so on.

For every $.50 donation, present a chocolate kiss and a paper heart. All the hearts are displayed in a common space at the school. This idea can be used with different candy and other shaped pieces of paper that would then be displayed.

Paper links can be sold for a set price, then assembled into a chain and displayed. A twist to this idea is to create a tessellation using two different colored triangles.

A talent show is a great way for students and teachers to share their talents with an audience. Donations can be collected from attendees and additional funds could be raised by selling refreshments. An additional way to raise funds for the Talent Show would be to vote a few weeks before the event for specific teachers to display their talents. This can be accomplished by using a canister for each teacher that would like to participate and the students, staff and faculty can vote with their spare change. The top three teachers that have the most funds are the ones to perform.

Decide what type of “thon” event you would like to hold to benefit the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Popular types of “thon” events include math, reading, spelling and running. The idea is to obtain donations from your family and friends for each time a unit of measure is accomplished during a specific time period. For example: 

• Math: $.50 per problem solved correctly
• Reading: $1.00 per book read
• Spelling: $.50 per word spelled correctly

A letter from the principal explaining the "thon" event accompanies the student home. At the same time, distribute pledge forms and encourage students to begin immediately to collect their pledges from friends, relatives and neighbors. Students submit their completed packet for correction and then the students take the verification to their sponsors and collect the agreed amount for each problem solved correctly. A sample of a sponsor sheet and letter can be obtained from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center development office by emailing Bethany Chance.