I am trying to get involved in Dylan's school as much as I can. I can't volunteer in the class because of little Miss. Taylor. So I am joining the PTA and taking over the Box Tops For Education for a friend of mine.

Anyone ever do this? Any suggestions? Any warnings? LOL

I just found out yesterday that I will be doing this and also found out the first collection is in October....don't think we will be submitting any for that. Unless I get this started ASAP.

On a side note: If any of you have some Box Tops and don't have Children or a school to give them to I would love to take them off your hands!

By Tonya on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 10:28 am:

I have done this and I would suggest putting a flyer together to send home with the kids. I think there is a website for this that gives a list of items you can find these on plus a sample flyer too. Send this flyer home 1x a month as a reminder to the parents. Most classrooms have a collection bin in t heir room for these things. If you have allot of parents that collect them they are tons of fun to count. But really it is not a hard project to head up.

Good luck.

By Kate on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 10:38 am:

I haven't had experience coordinating it, but I had a question maybe you could answer...are these really a big deal? Because I get reallllly tired of clipping box top squares off of food packages....especially the thick cardboard ones. I also HATE removing the Campbells Soup labels...any idea if THOSE are worthwhile? Box tops are easier to cut out, at least, than trying to get those dumb soup labels off!! Am I doing my school a huge disservice by not participating in this stuff and instead throwing my labels and box tops away? Box tops are so small, too, they're easy to lose...soup labels are easy to keep track of, just hard to get off. Any hints on easier removing withOUT getting them wet?

By Truestori on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 10:46 am:

Andi,
My friend was the coordinator and she had days where the kids who brought in the most won a small prize etc. She also put a big plastic sign on the school gates so they knew that this was going on at the school. Goodluck

By Tonya on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 10:54 am:

Yes they are worth while. They earn money for your childrens school that they otherwise wouldn't have. I don't know the exact figures but I know that with boxtops and soup labels we bought a new basketball net for both outdoor courts last year plus new mats for the gym teacher for classes and a few other things. Any extra money you can help your kids school earn the better.

I run a slit up the side of the can where the label is not attached and just pull it off the can never a problem.

And yes you are doing your school a disadvatage by not doing it cause what if all of the other parents who do it decided to pull out then they would not get that money.

By Kate on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 11:15 am:

What do you run a slit up the side of the soup can with?? I used to do this for several years when I finally quit last year. I used to use a razor that very quickly got dulled and those cans are ribbed...if they didn't have those ribs the blade would slide up it so much easier, but it always got stuck and was such a royal pain. The label is on way too tight to get a scissors in between it and the can...so razor was the only way I could ever do it, but it still wasn't the easiest thing in the world.

By Trina~moderator on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 11:19 am:

Our entire school district does this. A BIG help to our schools! More info:

BoxTopsForEducation.com

By Andi on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 11:23 am:

As for where to store the small Box Tops:

I just hang a Zip Lock Baggie on the fridge with a magnetic clip and store them in that. Thet way they are out so I don't forget about them and I can keep track of how many I have saved.

By Tonya on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 11:23 am:

A butter knife. I stick it under the label and run it up and it comes off or scissors or a steak knife. It is only a label on a soup can nothing major to me. To help my kids earn money for thier school I will do whatever I can. My sons school relys on these things and fundraisers to bring in as much money as they can to do extras for the kids. The district doesn't have all of the extra $$ to give us.

By Reds9298 on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 11:28 am:

Ditto Andi on the storage.
Ditto Tonya on sending a flyer home to parents.
YES they really help schools!!

OUr PTA gave each teacher a plastic envelope that we kept them in, turned them in at the end of the week, then we got them back in our mailboxes on Monday. HTH

Good luck! I think it's great that you're getting involved!

By Tonya on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 11:40 am:

The schools get anywhere from .50 to .80 cents per boxtop. Figure a school of 400 kids each bring in 10 at .75 a piece that is $3000 extra for your kids school. For books or fun after school fairs or in school parties.

By Boxzgrl on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 12:07 pm:

Cheerios boxes have bonus Box Tops right now. Or atleast they did a few weeks ago. I clip all mine and give them to my friend for her DD's school. She's turned in over 400 so far this year with the help of all us neighbors clipping.

By Kate on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 12:42 pm:

How do they get fifty to eighty cents per boxtop when every boxtop I've ever seen says ten cents on it? So the 'ten cents' doesn't indicate its value?

By Tonya on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 01:39 pm:

If you look online you will see it lists what different products bring in for different tops. Some are 0.10 some are 0.50 some are 0.80.

Even if it is only .10. Meliss said her girlfriend turned in 400 that is $40 from 1 person. If 300 kids bring in that many that is over 10K. it adds up if you look at it in the longer picture.

By Andi on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 03:33 pm:

So what did the poster say the was hung up on the fence? I would like to do something like that but it has to be short and to the point.

Not sure if it is in the budget to send home a weekly reminder...I will have to ask about that. What a great idea that is. Last year our school only made $400. I really want to try and do better than that but I'm geting a late start since the first turn in is in October.

By Tonya on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 03:38 pm:

Do a monthly reminder on white paper or an every 6 week reminder. The school has to have white paper they can run off copies on for this.

Good luck.

Also you could make a poster board size thing to hang in the front of the school that parents can see when they come in.

By Andi on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 03:57 pm:

I can go buy the Poster Board what do you have any suggestions on what it should say? Parents are always in such a rush when they drop off and pick up. What ever the poster says it needs to be short and sweet.
I guess I have some work to do. LOL

By Tunnia on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 03:57 pm:

I have been the Box Tops Coordinator for our school since 2003 and YES, they are worthwhile! One great place to look for ideas and help is on the Coordinators part of the Box Tops website. There is a forum there that has been a great help to me.

Here is what I do:

1. I send home a letter in the schools welcome packet. I introduce myself and outline the Box Tops program. I announce our goal for the year and what the money will be used for and I briefly outline the contests for the year. I also include a list of participating products with my welcome/info letter.

2. During the first couple of weeks of school I will send home a letter announcing our first contest with the requirements, deadline, and prize(s). I always have a Back-to-School contest. Every time I decide to have a contest (this year we are having three big contests, last year we had monthly small contests along with two big ones at the start and end of school) I send home an announcement about it and I give the children at least one month to collect. I generally spend very little money on the prizes. Some I buy on clearance when things are 75-90% off, some are donated by businesses. Sometimes I give each child who participates in a contest a small prize, sometimes I have a drawing for a big prize or two from all entries.

3. I have a small portion of the bulletin board outside the main office that I can use for Box Tops. I post a participating products list on this board along with anything special such as when a local store is running a Box Tops bonus special. I also post my most current Box Tops flyer on this board.

4. I send home a flyer about Box Tops about every two months. I sometimes give general Box Tops info and I share our goal again and let the parents know how we are doing in reaching that goal.

5. I have a small blurb to the effect of "Remember to clip and save your Box Tops" in every school newsletter.

6. I try to remind all the teachers to include a small Box Tops plug in their classroom newletters.

7. I talk, talk, talk about Box Tops to the parents and I ask them if they have any suggestions.

8. I suggest that you regularly prepare your Box Tops for mailing rather than waiting until a week before the deadline. It can be very time-consuming if you wait until the very end. I've done it both ways and really prefer not to put it off. I have a box in my closet labled Box Tops and when I bring the Box Tops home I prepare them for mailing and place them in the box. That way when it is submission time all I have to do is mail them in.

Good luck to you!

By Tink on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 04:38 pm:

What about making a big thermometer with your goal dollar amount at the top for your poster? It would be simple for you to update, would catch parents' eyes and would let the kids see how quickly each little 10 cent boxtop adds up.

I think it's great that you've found another way to be involved in Dylan's school and it sounds like Stacy has some great ideas. Have fun with this!

By Andi on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 04:52 pm:

Stacy would mind sharing any of the parent letters you have written over the years with me? Anything I can use as a starting point would be a huge help.
I e-mailed the lady who had this job last year but haven't heard back from her.

Tink I love the idea of the thermometer, you guys are the best!

By Eve on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 06:54 pm:

Andi-I can scan in the letter that got sent home to us for the Box Tops. Maybe it will help. It was nice and even had a list of the products that you could buy. Maybe that will help.

By Truestori on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 07:21 pm:

The poster was a plastic one from boxtops themselves...Not sure if they are free though. HTH"s

By Dana on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 08:52 pm:

I recently found out that there are rules about how to clip the box tops. I have just always torn it off the box and turned it in. I saw the school secretary cutting them all to exact size the other day. She said that was required! So if you rip your box top or part is missing it doesn't count. So for all you box top savers, make sure you do it neatly.

By Andi on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 09:31 pm:

I saw a section on there where you can buy stuff. I think I will buy one of those POsters if the school dosen't have any already. I think it was $12 or $15.

Eve...I would love it if you could send me a copy of that letter...thank you!

By Hol on Friday, September 22, 2006 - 11:17 pm:

My DS Mike's school collects Box Tops for Education. It is a small, private school for children with special needs, so they can use all the help they can get, too. They are on a LOT of products, including Toaster Struedels and Ortega Taco products.

I save the Campbell Soup labels for a Christian school in our area. I use one of DH's fileting knives from his tackle box to remove the labels. I just run the thin blade under the label, and slit it on the dotted line.

Good luck.

By Tunnia on Saturday, September 23, 2006 - 11:03 am:

Sure Andi, I'll email them to you if you like. What's your email address?

By Andi on Sunday, September 24, 2006 - 10:32 am:

Thank you!!!

w a h o o p e r 5 @ c o x . n e t

I received 3 plastic grocery bags each half full of Box Tops on Friday night. I spent Friday and part of Saturday going through them and cutting them to size as well as tossing the exp. ones. Now I have them in a bowl ready to start sorting.

From what I understand I will sort them 50 to a baggie and get them ready to mail. I just printed out the coordinator hand book and I am going to look over that this morning.

By Tunnia on Sunday, September 24, 2006 - 09:07 pm:

That's great that you are getting started right away! Make sure that the expiration date is in tact (you can tape Box Tops (BT) together if necessary) and the alpha code, typically in the lower left corner, so that they know which product it came from. Also, I have found the snack size baggies to be the way to go when bundling BT. Oh and here's a bit of info for you -- when General Mills receives BT submissions they do not count the BT in every single baggie, nor do they check every label. They count how many baggies you sent them, check it against your submission form and record that as the amount you get in your check. They will do a random selection from the submissions and check those bundles for accuracy, but most bundles go straight to the shredder without being looked at. If they find errors in their randomly selected bundles then they will go back and check the entire submission the bundle came from so it's good you are tossing the expired labels, although some coordinators do send in the expired ones and sometimes get credit for them, I don't because to me it's wrong to try to cheat the system. Anyway, I am telling you about how they work so you know that you don't have to perfectly cut out every label. Do it if you want to save a little on postage, but if your school is big enough that it won't miss a couple of extra dollars then you can skip cutting them and save yourself lots of time. When sending your submission, you don't have to send it by FedEx or UPS. Simply send it the cheapest way you can by USPS and add delivery confirmation. Also make a copy of your submission form after you fill it out. That way if your submission is ever lost in the mail you can still get credit by faxing GM your submission copy and providing the deliver confirmation info.

Oh, and another thing, if Box Tops University comes near your area next summer definitely go! I have gone two years in a row and it's really informative and you get a great goodie bag from General Mills. I have used most of the stuff from my goodie bags for prizes in my contests.

I'll email the stuff I have sent home to you in the next couple of days after I go through them and take out my school's info so you can just plug your info in if you choose.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

By Andi on Sunday, September 24, 2006 - 11:33 pm:

Thank you so much Stacy! I wish I knew about the cutting yesterday. Since I cut over 2,000 box tops, live and learn. Although knowing me...I will always cut them down, I like them looking neat. All the box tops are cut perfectly and I threw out all the expired ones. I would have done that even after you gave me that info.

I'm glad you shared your info with me, I was wondering how the whole system worked with checking for accuracy. I bought two of the banners today so I will hang those up at school when they arrive and I am getting lots of useful info from the coordinators section of Box Tops.

Thanks again for sending me that stuff....I am very excited about it.

By Tunnia on Monday, September 25, 2006 - 04:39 pm:

Andi, I just emailed you five Box Tops letters. I have lots more, but I'm out of time because both dk's have belt tests at Tae Kwon Do tonight and we need to leave in five minutes. I will send more tomorrow afternoon. If you have any questions. Let me know.

By Andi on Monday, September 25, 2006 - 10:33 pm:

I got them, thank you...they are great!

By Babysitbarb on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 01:49 pm:

My DD's are no longer in elementary but, I still cut the box tops for education and give them to one of my babysitting kids. I think I have done it for so long I just can't break the habit.