Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop raffle raises money for field trips

2015-10-27 14.32.29
Ann Farnham stands at the entrance of the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop.

Story and photo by Jo Mathis
AAPS District News Editor

Odds are, you are not going to win a car or cash in the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop Car & Cash Raffle.

But one thing’s for sure: If you don’t buy a ticket, you surely won’t win.

So Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop Executive Director Ann Farnham encourages you to go ahead. Buy that ticket.

It’s the first year the shop is holding a raffle, with all proceeds supporting Ann Arbor Public Schools, PTOs and students. The drawing is Jan. 2.

“We are not a for-profit company,” said Farnham, sitting in her office at the shop located at 2280 S. Industrial. “So it’s not like a fundraising project with a fundraising company that is taking a cut. Our cut, by our mission, goes right back into supporting the public schools. And if you buy that raffle ticket from your own PTO, band or sports team, it’s also a great way to support both your local school community while supporting the broader community.”

The Car & Cash Raffle is a 50-50 fundraising split designed to raise money for both the Thrift Shop’s transportation fund, which supports the district with field trip bus and middle school late bus funding, and AAPS fundraising groups such as PTOs, PTSOs, and arts and athletics booster clubs.

Raffle tickets are $10 each, or $40 for a book of five.

The Thrift Shop has distributed $1.6 million to AAPS since July of 2008.

Farnham hopes the raffle will grow every year so that it can support the high cost of field trips.

“Our elementary schools depend on it; sports teams now have to use a lot of these charters; there’s a whole other level of funding we’re not able to provide yet, and we hear it from student groups, from athletic directors, from teachers, from parents all the time,” she said. “We’re trying to find ways so that we can build, over the next three or four years, support that can completely underwrite the requests from the district for field trip and middle school busses.”

The first prize is a Lincoln MKZ Hybrid lease arrangement courtesy of Sesi Lincoln on Jackson Road.

Second and third prizes are $5,000 and $1,000.

Tickets are for sale at the shop, as well as through PTOs and high school sports teams.

2015-10-27 14.27.46

 

 

 

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