On Tuesday, Dec. 2, students were greeted with a display of t-shirts, hoodies and school spirit themed jewelry in the front office. Until the end of the semester, the PTSA will continue to run the holiday table in the front office to sell school store merchandise.

The holiday table was started last year by the PTSA board members who thought selling merchandise where there was more foot traffic would bring in more profit. This also allows for things to be sold during hours outside of lunch, which allowed for more sales.

“Being able to be open more than just the lunch break benefits a lot of people,” spirit and merchandise co-chair Stephanie Watts said.

Money raised by the PTSA goes toward programs such as the Wishing Well Grant Program, which helps meet teacher classroom needs and fund senior scholarships.

The majority of the PTSA income relies on membership sales, school store income, apparel sales and holiday table sales. Last week alone, approximately $1700 was raised from the holiday table.  It is estimated to raise over $5000 by the end of the week.

PTSA board members volunteered to staff the table, and the daily hours of operation were announced on the group’s Facebook page. Items offered vary from hoodies and t-shirts to husky stuffed-animals and jewelry. Teachers who stopped by the table before Wednesday were able to enter their name in a raffle.

In addition to the holiday table, the PTSA is now part of the AmazonSmile program, which donates .5 percent of all sales on Amazon.com back to an organization if the shopper logs in with a certain link.  PTSA advertised both this fundraiser and the holiday table through the school website.

The calculation of profits from the holiday table will be finalized after Jan. 1 and the first Amazon check will arrive in February, which is when the PTSA will know how effective the sales with AmazonSmile have been.

Log into Amazon using this link for 0.5 percent of your online shopping to go back to PTSA: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/38-3720809