Scrip - Practical, painless way to raise money for your child’s camp and mission trips

By Carol Gustafson

If you have kids, you probably know that families and fundraising go together like peanut butter and jelly or field trips and permission slips. It seems like every time we parents turn around, we’re writing another check for the soccer team, the band trip, or the summer camp. To help ease the strain on our family’s budget, my three kids have sold candy bars, cookies, popcorn, magazine subscriptions, butter braids, wrapping paper and even—get this—birdseed! But these days especially, we need all the help we can get.

When I first heard about the grocery scrip program—or fundraiser—here at Arvada Covenant, I immediately wondered, “What’s the catch?” And guess what? There isn’t one. Here’s how it goes: you write a check to ACC for $50. You get a $50 King Soopers gift card in return. The grocery store donates five percent, or $2.50 from every $50 purchase, and the church puts that money into an “account” for your ACC student. Buy $100 in scrip, get $5 in your family’s account. Buy $500 in scrip and $25 goes right to your account, and so forth. You get the math.

The money in your child’s account can be used to pay for church-related activities like Covenant Heights summer camp, Kids Camp registration fees, youth group trips and mission trips. And, since the money can accrue over the years—there’s no use it or lose it—we actually started our ACC scrip account for our kids a few years back when they were all still in elementary school.

Need more enticement? Remember, your King Soopers gift cards can also be used to purchase gas and all the other gift cards sold at the grocery store.You can get your neighbors and grandparents to participate.You could even ask people here at church (think empty-nesters) to buy the scrip and name your child as the beneficiary.

The scrip is sold nearly every week between services down in the Family Life Center. When you need to spend the money in your account, you just call Sheila Knight in the church office with your request.

I don’t know about you, but I have all the gift wrap I need, candy goes right to my waistline and the birdseed…is for the birds. Here’s what I love about this program: we all gotta eat, each and every week. This simple fact makes the King Soopers scrip at ACC the most painless, practical fundraiser I can do.