Eat, Play, And Give With Chuck E. Cheese's

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Chuck E. Cheese’s. The opinions and text are all mine.

In July of 2015 I did something that I never thought I would do. I signed up to run a half marathon. Not only that, I signed up to be a St Jude Hero.

St. Jude Heroes are a group of athletes committed to raising funds for the lifesaving mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I love St Jude because families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.

I love that.

So my mission has been to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital before the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February.

Fundraising is not my forte. I actually hate asking people for money, and my fundraising efforts were showing that.

That’s when I learned about the FUNdraising program at Chuck E. Cheese’s!

You can have a FUNdraising night at Chuck E. Cheese’s if you are raising money for your school or non-profit, such as boy or girl scouts, sports organizations, or religious youth groups. To get started, visit their FUNdraising section of their website.

When you schedule a fundraising night at Chuck E. Cheese’s for your school, 15% of all sales from participating families, teachers and the community is donated back to the school (food, merchandise and tokens). Additionally, Chuck E. Cheese’s prepares packages for every participating school 21 days before their event including:

Token sticker for each child enrolled, package comes with 104 stickers
2 Fundraising Posters
1 black and white flyer with coupons, front in English and back in Spanish

Schools can request to have Chuck E. himself visit their campus the day of the event to get kids excited. Don’t all kids love Chuck E.? Chuck E. can hang out by the bus or carpool line and wave goodbye to the kids and remind the parents that the fundraising event is that night. Some schools even create small assemblies where the younger grades come in and say hi to Chuck E. Get everyone involved! We can’t forget the teachers. Teachers receive a free meal and a trip in the Ticket Blaster when they provide a school ID (good for an individual one-topping pizza OR all you can eat salad bar and soft drink).

How awesome is that?

For non-profits is a little different but the sign up process is similar.

Creating an e-vite through punchbowl was easy with the Chuck E. Cheese’s themed options. The invitations options included free versions and paid versions.

I went with the free version to create the invitation for our FUNdraising night to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. My kids helped me pick it out. I was actually super excited they chose this one because of the characters represented. I remember having birthday parties when I was their age with these characters too.

Make sure to check your email. That’s where you will receive confirmation emails and flyers to print out to help advertise your FUNdraising night at Chuck E. Cheese’s, like the ones below.

As a non-profit I had to submit tax information and proof that the organization supported children. St. Jude was great about getting that information to me so I could submit it to Chuck E. Cheese’s.

We spread the word and encouraged everyone we knew to come.

Our FUNdraising night finally arrived. I was nervous and excited about raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The kids had so much fun.

Their favorite part was the parade around the game area following Chuck E. and grabbing all the tickets they could hold.

If you are a member of an organization and need ideas for fundraising, I highly recommend looking into the option of FUNdraising with Chuck E. Cheese’s. The kids had so much fun, and the money raised is going to a great cause. The Chuck E. Cheese’s corporate office helped everything run smoothly.