The holiday season is coming up. That means it is time to begin both decorating your household with family, as well finishing up selling orders for La Salle’s 20th annual apple, wreath, and swag fundraiser. This is the only school-wide fundraiser and has a history of being extremely successful year after year, shown by the record total of $85,000 raised last year. Although these sales were very high, this year La Salle is hoping for a new record, with a goal of $90,000 raised. All orders must be turned in on October 17.

However, students are not expected to make all of this money without any incentive. If you are the top seller of units in your Falcon Formation class, then you have the chance to win prizes that vary from: a $50 Clackamas Town Center gift card, a $50 iTunes gift card, a $50 Starbucks gift card, or $50 towards dinner and homecoming tickets. There is also $75 to spend for the top Falcon Formation class.

Although all of these prizes are a good way to push students to make more sales, the entire purpose of the fundraiser is to get students selling. The reason La Salle has this school-wide fundraiser is in order to help with the 50% of students who attend the school in providing them with financial aid. So in theory, if this fundraiser was not in place, then half of the students, your friends, would not receive the same level of financial support, and as a result might not be able to attend La Salle. Every Lasallian family receives a $2,305 subsidy, making a $1 million difference between the tuition the school requests and the actual amount of money is needed to keep La Salle up and running.

There is a minimum of 15 units that need to be sold per family attending La Salle, or else the family will be charged for each unsold unit. One unit consists of one wreath, one swag, one box of apples, or nine feet of garland. 25 jazz apples are $20.00 a box, garland is $2.00 per foot, and wreaths and swags are $20 or $35 if shipping with UPS is preferred.

On October 17th the order forms and money will be collected in Falcon Formation class, and pickups of these units are available on November 23-24th, as well as again in January, March, and April. So get selling, and get a head start on your Christmas shopping.