Dance Marathon
You will need to reserve your school's gymnasium and ask a local DJ to donate his/her services. Have students obtain pledges from relatives and friends and ask local businesses to make cash donations or donate food or gifts to use as door prizes for dancers. Think of fun activities to keep dancers busy (i.e., the hokey pokey, limbo, etc.). Establish a time frame for the marathon — we suggest six hours.

Sell Cutouts
You can create your own Make-A-Wish cutouts or order them through the Foundation. Cutouts can be sold to students for $1 each. Students write their names on them and the cutouts should be displayed on a wall in your school to show your support of Make-A-Wish. One local school district also gave some cutouts to their local businesses to sell to their customers.

Make-A-Wish Fun Run
Students from all schools in your district can participate in this event! All joggers and walkers are asked to make a small donation to participate. One school district recently asked for $3 from elementary students, $4 from middle school students and $5 from high school students. They also sold Fun Run T-shirts.

Paper Chain Link Contest
Paper links are sold to students and each grade makes a different color chain. They compete to see who can make the longest paper chain for Make-A-Wish.

Hat Day
Students give a $1 donation to wear a hat all day at school. You may even want to give a prize to the student wearing the funniest hat.

Teacher Talent Show
One local high school got many of their teachers to perform in a talent show at their school. They charged $5 admission to students, which was donated to Make-A-Wish.

Sell Candy-Grams
For 50 cents or $1 dollar, kids write messages to friends and teachers that are delivered during the day. Each message has a piece of candy attached. Candy-grams work especially well around holidays.

Read-A-Thon
Develop a simple pledge form. Next, send a letter home with students asking friends and relatives for pledges based on the number of books their child will read in one month. At the end of the month, students collect the pledges and turn in their donation in to their teachers.

Walk-A-Thon
Develop a simple pledge form. Next, ask students to collect pledges from friends and relatives. Mark a one mile course for the walk.

Chinese Auction
Teachers are asked to donate one new toy or game that is appropriate for their grade level, and support staff is asked to donate items for adults. Then sell groups of tickets to teachers and students. They can put all of their tickets into one box for a good chance of winning one particular item or they can put one or two tickets into each box to have a chance of winning each prize.

Band or Choral Concert
Collect donations at your next holiday or spring concert. This is great for high school and middle school band and choral groups. You can charge a small admission fee or pass around a can to collect donations.

Homeroom Carnival
Each homeroom team devises a game of skill or an activity — Pin the Tail on the Donkey, hit a golf ball into a cup, face painting, bake sale, etc. Students donate 25 to 50 cents to participate in each event.

Spaghetti Dinner or Pancake Breakfast
You can work with a local restaurant or ask a group of parents to help with the cooking. Invite students and residents in the community. Charge a small admission fee.

Pajama Party
Have a school dance where everyone has to wear his or her pajamas. Charge an admission fee for Make-A-Wish®.

Bowl-A-Thon
One local fourth grade raised $6,800 collecting sponsorships such as 5 cents per pin or a $5 flat donation from friends and family. The class that raised the most received a pizza party and all the participants received cookies donated by a local grocer. Ask your local bowling alley to donate a few lanes for the event.

Sell T-shirts
One local school developed a cool T-shirt design and sold them to students and parents at their school's basketball games. They raised $3,400.

Penny War Competition
Each grade level competes against each other to collect the most pennies. Students are encouraged to put nickels, dimes and quarters in another grades container to get the corresponding amount of pennies subtracted from their total count!

Bake Sale
Students bring in a baked good from home. The bake sale can be held in the school cafeteria or at a local shopping center, but be sure to ask permission first.

Student/Teacher Basketball or Volleyball Game
Students and teachers compete against each other in basketball, volleyball or any other type of sporting event. Funds are raised through an admission fee and sale of refreshments. A 50/50 raffle can also be used during the game.

Dress Down Day
Students with a dress code in their school can contribute a small fee to wear casual clothes to school for the day. Teachers can participate in Dress Down Days, too!

Holiday Party
Students love to have parties. You can plan a Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day party to benefit Make-A-Wish®! Charge admission, ask students if they would like to bring in donations to help kids who are not as fortunate as they are.

Give Holiday Donations
Instead of a gift exchange or instead of buying gifts for your teachers, suggest helping others by making donations to the Make-A-Wish Foundation®.

You can try one of these project ideas or devise a Kids For Wish Kids® project of your own!

If you are interested in hosting a Kids for Wish Kids fundraiser to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Hudson Valley, please contact Cathie Hirsh, Development Manager, at 914-478-9474 or mail chirsh@hudson.wish.org. Click here for our Event Proposal form.

Make-A-Wish Foundation® of the Hudson Valley documents are available for download. The documents are in Adobe® PDF (portable document file) format. In order to view these documents, you must have Adobe® 6 Reader®. If you don't have the Reader®, you can download it for free from Adobe® by clicking here or on the "Get Adobe® Reader®" icon below.