Best fundraiser ever

I have to admit, I HATE fundraisers. Usually you buy some crappy, overpriced item and the school gets a small amount of the purchase. At our current elementary school, we have some kind of lame "spirit night" several times a month at Chick-fil-A, Arby's, Mad Pizza, Chuck-o-Rama,Chuck-e-Cheese, etc. You go and "show your school spirit" by buying dinner there that night and the school gets a measly 15% of the sales. Chick-fil-A is the only one of those places that even somewhat tempts me but I wouldn't go there and spend $30-40 JUST so that the school could receive a whopping $4.50. I would rather just send $5 in to the school. My kids just kicked off their cookie dough fundraiser and I am dreading it. I am trying to get in shape and eat healthier and the last thing I want in my freezer is ready-to-bake cookie dough. I know some people will disagree with me. I know our old school did a huge pancake feed with a silent auction and games for the kids and they made a TON of money ($20k++) every year. But each family ended up forking out easily over $100 buying pancake tickets, contributing to the auction baskets, buying raffle tickets, donating to the bake sale, etc. For those of us who didn't have grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in town who could buy tickets (and who had multiple children at the school) we had to purchase them or turn them in (gasp!). If you want to read my rant on that, go here.

To my delight, we awoke one day last week to find a flock of flamingos on our front lawn. The kids loved it. I thought it was hilarious. I had to keep telling them they couldn't ride on the flamingoes. It was a fundraiser put on by the high school band. To have the flock removed, pay $10. To have the flock relocated to a friends' yard, pay $15 instead. I love contributing $15 to play a silly, harmless prank on a friend. That should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me. No wrapping paper, cookie dough, etc to deal with. Also, very little overhead. The high schoolers do the removing and replacing of the flamingos around 10-11pm each night. In my opinion, this is a genius fundraiser. I'm thinking of making my own signs and having my kids do it in the summer to earn money. Just kidding.

P.S. For the record, I am not as mean as I sound. I do actually usually purchase something when some neighborhood kid (or nephew) comes to the door with fundraiser items (unless they are from my kids' school which we are already buying from our own 3 kids).