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Box Tops University – Chicago Style

On Monday, April 2, in the early evening, I was able to join about 100 other crazy Box Tops For Education ladies from the Chicagoland area for Box Tops University. Some other ladies also represented from St. Louis, Michigan and ALASKA!

For the last three or so years, I have been the coordinator at the school that the cellist goes to, and this coordinating stuff has been bittersweet. It’s no small feat to collect these, but when you do, it’s AWESOME!

For those of you STILL in the dark about Box Tops, let me give you a bit of  background : 

  • American schools have earned more that $445 million through Box Tops for Education since the start of the program in 1996.
  • More than 90,000 K-8 schools are enrolled in the program
  • There are more than 240 Box Tops for Education brands including Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Land O’ Lakes, Old El Paso, Hanes, Ziploc, Hefty, Pillsbury, Juicy Juice,Avery,Kleenex, Brita, and Boise
  • There are more than 70,000 coordinators involved in the program (that’s a LOT of crazy Box Tops Ladies!)
  • The Box Tops for Education Facebook Page has over 800,000 fans
The Box Tops for Education program began in 1996, as more and more schools struggled to make ends meet. Usually a designated program coordinator develops ways to encourage students, parents school staff and community members to clip Box Tops from participating products and bring them to school. 
After the collected Box Tops are sent to General Mills, the school receives a check that is equivalent to 10 cents for every Box Top redeemed. They can spend it as they wish.
It doesn’t take too much to collect these either. I know that I had to convince a lot of parents that having “only” ten, was still one dollar more than what we had before hand.
The training that we got at Box Tops University was pretty cool as well. We were able to learn about new partners, and new products that were coming out from current partners.
Mostly I’m excited about two things.
Ziploc Perfect Portion Bags and their Duo Bags – which are just a combination of the snack and sandwich bags in one box. And yes indeed you still get two Box Tops with the purchase of the Duo Bags.
AND
Box Tops being on Hanes socks, undershirts and underwear for boys and girls.  I might actually enjoy back to school underclothes shopping for once. Well, let’s not go all out, the addition of Box Tops will ease the pain a little bit.
The great thing about the program is the fact that each school can earn a maximum of $20,000 each school year in TWO areas – Clip & Earn (clipping the coupons off of any of the participating products), Marketplace (shopping online through the Box Tops Marketplace) and while you may max out during one year, anything over can be applied to the next year. How fantastic is THAT?!
Lots of items were given away, and we also learned that Wal-Mart is joining the crew of Local Retailers offering Bonus Box Tops by shopping in their stores. Right now, you can sign up to get 10 Box Tops for the school that you support by signing up for it HERE.
Now, for the photos from last night,
We had a pretty packed house for a Monday evening! Tommy and Kathy did and excellent job of leading the instructional time and even with answering the questions of all of the coordinators and supporters in the room. We had one coordinator who has collected $6700 in Box Tops for her school this year! YOWZA!
Our swag bags were also chock full of Box Top participants:
If you collect these and have NO idea where to send them – you can always contact me and donate to the cellists’ school OR donate to the closest school in your area that collects. You can always find out which school collects by going to www.btfe.com
Happy Clipping!
You can learn more at the following sites:
Disclosure: I was invited as a blogger to attend BTU – although I was happy to be going even as a coordinator this year – you know, schedules and all of that. I was given a thank you gift, but all opinions in this post are all Mrs. Houseful! I’ll forever be a crazy Box Tops Lady

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Brandie

Friday 6th of April 2012

We get cute fliers home to decorate our boxtops on from school (i.e. a pumpkin patch you can tape your tops to, or a christmas tree, and for valentines day paper hearts). =)

Natasha

Monday 9th of April 2012

Brandie - I try to send the fliers home on a regular basis, and I am also finding that teachers LOVE using the educational ones for lessons. It's awesome!

Antoinette

Tuesday 3rd of April 2012

I am so happy that you enjoyed yourself. I signed up to attend, but had to work late. Can you tell me more about Walmart and offer any tips. I told you before I am a crazy Box Top Mom also. My daughter class wins each time they have a challenge at her school. I think my coupon shopping helps with that, but I want her school to earn more next year.

Natasha

Tuesday 3rd of April 2012

The Wal Mart program won't go live until this summer, however, as far as tips, I had to get organized and always keep Box Tops in the faces of the parents. When I started doing that, we quadrupled our earnings.

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