Have you heard about this! You must be living under a rock if you haven't. The Box Tops For Education program has been around for years and years and it really is a great way for schools to earn money for extra things that enhance the whole experience. Both of my kids' schools have been collecting them and we happily help as much as we can.

Just in case you've never seen them before, this is what they typically look like.  You'll find them on all sorts of products.

This is the huge sheet of 25 box tops that we just filled.  For each one, his school will get $.10.  That doesn't sound like much to you? Well this one sheet has 25 box tops so it will earn the school's PTA $2.50.  Multiply that by the approximately 600 kids in Jammer's school (if all families participated of course), and they'd receive a whopping $1,500.00.  Not bad for something you'd throw out if you weren't in the know.

This is the new sheet we just started to fill.  The typical monthly themed sheets the school sends home has 10 box top spaces so they still earn $1.00 each. Last month, my boss's wife sent home a big bag full of them and Jammer was thrilled.  Her son is in high school now and they don't collect these at that level.  Some of them were expired so we couldn't use them but he still filled a ton of sheets and his class ended up being the second biggest collector of the month.  The school has a friendly competition throughout the year between the classrooms and the top collecting class each month gets to display the trophy.

You may not have kids in school any more, but I'm betting that your local elementary schools are collecting these box tops too.  Our PTA uses the money to fun all sorts of free events for the kids throughout the year which both Jammer and Sunshine really enjoy.  So if you aren't collecting, start now.  Contact your local schools and find out where you can drop them off.  During the summer we always have a baggie in the drawer were we put our box tops so that we can fill a few sheets early in the school year as soon as they start coming home.  This is really a wonderful and free way to support your local schools.