THE CLASS GIFT, a simple idea really… It was, to us, a no-brainer.  If the kids want to give a class gift, then they should raise the money to pay for it and they should decide what to leave as their legacy.  And so, the owl project began.  First, we approached the Principal and the Sixth Grade teachers.  Would they help us out?  Of course, they said, what do you need?  We asked for their students, and in return, we would give them an entire class lesson on running a business. The one decision we made without the kids was what to sell.  Candy roses, $1 each for Mother’s Day.  We then presented our business proposal to each class and asked interested students to sign up for a job in one department; Advertising, Sales, Inventory Control, Accounting, Order Fulfillment,  or Delivery.  Every child in every class signed on to help.  They loved the idea!  They were being treated like adults, were given responsibilities, were going to be held accountable and they were going to have control (for the most part) over their class gift.  After we got the kids involved, we asked them to get their parents involved.  We need their time (not their money), an hour or two to help supervise certain activities.  We were relieved when parents came forward.

Day 1, Monday morning - the Advertising Department was up and running and by day’s end, posters advertising the sale were hanging strategically around the school and a flyer was designed to go home with students announcing the sale. Day 2 - Sales went into action, distributing order forms and collection envelopes to every class and each office, making their way into every mailbox, including all school staff and Board of Ed. Day 3- Sales came up with a plan of when to retrieve orders from each classroom, every Friday morning for 3 weeks.  Day 5, Friday morning - envelopes containing orders and cash money were turned over to the Accounting Department where every order was checked against the cash received, and all the monies were counted and accounted for.  Money was deposited, and the orders were forwarded to Order Fulfillment where counts were taken of each item.  This process continued for two more weeks, and by the end, our sons and daughters had sold 2,543 candy roses for Mother’s Day  An order for the roses was placed with the vendor and the students’ anxiously awaited delivery.  That day was filled with anticipation, and they were ready and raring to go for the toughest job to come, held by each student.  Help decorate each rose with netting, a ribbon and gift tag.  Our students gave up their recesses, came in early, left late and generally found whatever free time they had to decorate each and every rose.  Some orders asked if a bouquet could be made instead of individual roses.  We figured out how to do that and the kids continued to work daily.  Within 5 days, we were done and Order Fulfillment worked closely together.  Every order was packed into a paper bag with the order form attached, and hand delivered to each classroom for distribution into backpacks for the trip home. Our final accounting told us that at $.50 profit per rose, we had, after expenses, just over $1,100 dollars to spend.  Each class was asked to submit their 3 top suggestions for a gift.  A ballot was created and each child was allowed to vote for their 3 top choices, 1, 2, and 3.  By a wide margin, an owl statue was the number 1 clear winner.  A custom made base stone and a sculpted owl were installed in November of this year. As promised, the teachers were given a breakdown of the business.  It included a list of each department’s staff, the sales numbers (with percentages) by item, by grade, and by classroom.  Costs were given, expenses listed, and profits shown.  Teachers could use this to teach about market share, costs, expenses and net profits, turn around time to delivery, best sellers, weakest sellers, you name it. The search for the perfect owl took much longer than we had anticipated, but the students remembered and would ask for the status of their owl whenever they saw us, but Kari and I are sure that if you ask any student from the class of 2005, they can tell you all about their business and what class gift they gave to Beecher Road School.