A DECORATED COMMODE stands in a La Center home off North Fork Avenue on Aug. 19. Homeowners can collect donations or pay $25 to get the toilet off their yard and “gift’’ it to someone else in La Center. They can also pay an additional $5 to insure that the commode will not return to their yard. In two weeks, the fundraiser has collected nearly $500 for La Center High School’s senior class of 2016.
LA CENTER – If you’ve been to La Center recently, you may have noticed something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book – a brightly colored toilet with flowers in its bowl keeps popping up in front yards around town.
So what’s the deal? Are people trying to “Keep La Center Weird” or is it just a playful prank? Neither, says Vicky Davis, of the La Center High School’s Senior Parent Committee.
“It’s a fundraiser,” Davis says. “People can pay to get it out of their yard and they can pay to ‘gift’ it to someone else.”
For $25, a person who discovers the toilet in their front yard can pay to make it go away and to send the commode to another yard. (Take note, La Center folks. This could happen to you someday soon, especially They can also pay an extra $5 to insure that the commode won’t come back to their own yard.
The fundraiser started in early August, when a group of La Center High student volunteers placed the commode in Mayor Jim Irish’s yard.
“He called right away to donate,” Davis said. “And, yes, he paid for the insurance, so it won’t come back!”
In just two weeks, the fundraiser has made nearly $500 for the class of 2016’s “Safe Graduation Celebration.”
“Most people think it’s pretty funny. I’ll have people calling who are laughing so hard they can barely talk,” Davis says.
If it seems a bit early to be thinking about graduation before the school year even begins, Davis says that the parent committee needs to get an early start to meet its fundraising goals.
“It costs about $15,000 to put on the safe graduation celebration each year,” Davis says. “Most of the cost is for transportation. We can’t use the district’s buses, so we have to rent a bus and then there’s the cost of finding a place big enough to have about 100 seniors, and we have to feed them and provide entertainment. It gets expensive.”
The annual safe grad party is a way for newly graduated seniors to have a good time and for parents of those grads to get a night’s sleep, knowing that their child is in a safe, no-alcohol zone.
“We pick them up right after graduation and go to an undisclosed location for the all-night party,” Davis says. “Then we bring them back the next morning.”
On Aug. 27 and 28, La Center High School seniors will register and purchase their Class of 2016 sweatshirts, which is their ticket to events like the graduation party. This is also the time when parents who want to “opt out” of the host of fundraising requests can pay a flat fee of $300.
“For people who are really busy, but want to contribute something without having to volunteer time or fundraise, the opt-out option is a good alternative,” Davis says.
For parents who do have time to contribute, the La Center High School’s Senior Parent Committee will send out requests for fundraising efforts throughout the year. One great way for parents to participate is to garner one or two auction items – Davis says things like spa services, bottles of wine and vacation packages are always popular – for the annual La Center High School auction on March 19, 2016.
“The auction generates most of our donations for the senior graduation celebration,” Davis says.
But the summertime commode fundraiser, which Davis started this year after seeing a friend’s similar efforts in her native Montana, has also been a good income generator. In two weeks, the toilet has made it to 17 different yards, sometimes traveling to two locations in just one day. Davis’ daughter, Mysti, an incoming senior, and her friends help with the “relocation” of the commode.
“It’s been a hit so far,” Davis says. “We’re gathering chuckles along with donations.”
