As a parent you will obviously be asked to help out with your offspring’s fundraising activities and one of those activities will be a car wash fundraiser. As a good parent having read this article you will know exactly what is needed and with a little help from other parents will be able to prevent a disastrous event. There are certain supplies that are needed for a car wash fundraiser; for instance:

SUPPLIES

Soap

Sponges (2)

Towels

Buckets (3)

Garden Hoses

Window Cleaner

Clothesline

Coffee Can Collection Box

Clip Boards (2)

Whistle with Strings (2)

Stop Watch

Squeegees (3)

Chamois (2)

Your soap buckets should be five gallon buckets. You don’t have to buy them. Go to the local McDonald’s and ask the manager for a pickle bucket. They are green but who cares. They are free. McDonald’s will also give you a giant water dispenser full of fruit punch to borrow for the day of the event if you want. Tell the management in advance that you will need these items. Also ask them for coupons to hand out at your fundraiser. It will help their business and you should return the favor.

Your sponges shouldn’t be real sponges but lamb’s wool squares. They look like car wash mitts except they are square and about a foot on each side. You can buy them at Pep Boys, Trac Auto or any large auto parts store. You will need four or five of them.

You will need about 150 feet of garden hose. Put the longest section on last. Hopefully it will be 75 feet in length. People drive over the hose ends and ruin them because they smash the brass fittings. The ends will leak and lower your hose pressure. If you plan on having lots of cars at your event, you may want to buy a ‘y’ garden hose fitting at the hardware store (under $3.00) and then get 300 feet of hose and run two hoses each 150 feet long. Don’t use a plastic hose reel. It gets in the way and gets damaged easily. You don’t want to have to give back a damaged hose reel to the lender especially since it’s someone in your group and it probably came from their front yard.

Have each washer bring three towels. Make sure they are towels that they do not need back. They should be garage sale quality. Don’t use nice bath towels from bathrooms. Custom/expensive towels will get ripped or ruined. Plus, most people use fabric softener when washing these types of towels. Fabric softener streaks windows and slows down the drying process. Use the worst towels to dry rims all day. Nicer towels for chrome, windows and body. When the towels get too wet hang them on your clothesline between two trees.

Don’t buy window cleaner. Buy one pint of rubbing alcohol. Use your squirt bottles. Add fifteen to twenty percent alcohol and fill the rest of the bottle with distilled or reverse osmosis water and put on squirt heads. Buy three squirt bottles. You will only use two at a time but squirt heads are unreliable and you might run over the bottles. You should have two people in charge of windows and chrome. Assign them squirt bottles with window cleaner and one squeegee each. No car leaves without perfect windows and mirrors. Tell them they are in charge and remember mirrors are considered windows. This will increase your ‘tipage’ by ten to twenty percent. Even if the cars are not perfect, if the windows are, it’s a good car wash.

You should time the average wash and average dry. If you are washing faster than drying, take away a wash mitt from the bucket and you will find that extra person moving to another assignment. If cars are drying faster than washing, hand a soap mitt to the average dryer (not the fastest or the slowest). Ask them “We’re getting behind in the washing. Can you go help speed them up?”

Give a chamois to a supervisor in the dry area for dark colored and very expensive cars. He should have a spare chamois for your best worker to use to help with special cars that come through. This extra special treatment should cost more so have the donation can person stand by while you work. Without asking for an extra tip you will increase your chance of getting a large tip by fifty percent, money your group needs and deserves. Before the event copy this list above and then check off each item as you get it and have it all ready to go the morning of the event, you will be glad you did, because you are a great parent and you care. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” - Online WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; WorldThinkTank.net www.WorldThinkTank.net/