Just when your checking account is beginning to recover from back-to-school supplies and fees, your child hands over a packet reminding you it's not over yet: Fundraising season has begun.

These days, parents find themselves raising money for everything from playground equipment to textbooks, field trips to the zoo or even to the Mainland.

And where children once were the ones out selling to anyone willing to listen, parents increasingly are selling goods in the workplace, volunteering at fun fairs, carnivals and sporting events or writing checks to avoid begging for money.

It can add up to dozens of hours of their time or up to $200 if they choose to pay out of their own pockets rather than sell candy bars or cookies.

If the parent has more than one child, particularly when they're at different schools, the fundraisers can get overwhelming.

"I think it's a big burden for parents, and their friends," said Moanalua Elementary School parent Lori Shimoda.

But Shimoda and other parents agree: You have to do it. After all, one of the beneficiaries is your own child.

"The PTA supports a lot of programs at our school," Shimoda said.

At Moanalua, for instance, any money raised goes to supplement services the school could not otherwise pay for: the gifted and talented program, student service groups, a reading program, theater workshops and other needs identified by teachers.

Moanalua is not the only school tapping its parents for help paying for enrichment programs. While major fundraising has long been commonplace at private schools, a statewide emphasis on addressing the core standards has forced many public school principals to call on parents to help provide the extras.

TIMES HAVE CHANGED

As a child, you may have gone door-to-door all over the neighborhood hawking magazine subscriptions, bars of chocolate or boxes of cookies, but that kind of salesmanship is no longer recommended.

Parent organizations advise against using your children to solicit from strangers, meaning that more of the responsibility falls on parents, who often step in once children have exhausted their network of family and friends.

Sometimes it's as easy as walking your goods past hungry co-workers looking for an excuse to snack. Other times it's more time-consuming, such as sitting in front of a grocery store while your smiling child tempts shoppers with loaves of sweet bread or chocolate-covered almonds.

Then there are the major fundraisers, the ones that require soliciting corporate donors, extensive organization and lots and lots of manpower.

BIG VS. SMALL

As schools identify more costly wants and needs, the demand on parents to pay for them grows.

At many schools this means the "annual" fundraiser has given way to a series of fundraisers throughout the school year.

Other schools zero in on the one big money-maker that requires more work but fewer sales over the course of the year.

The Friends of Wai'alae Elementary School has found what works for them, a $10 card that offers discounts at area businesses.

Friends President Russ Sumida said you can't beat the profit margin: The cards cost a dollar to print; everything else goes back to the school.

"The key is to get everybody hustling and trying to get the vendors on the cards and the vendors being supportive of the school," he said. "It takes a lot of work ... but the labor is free."

The annual fundraiser has proved so popular that people who have since left Wai'alae call to find out when the cards will go on sale for the current year.

The cards bring in the bulk of the $30,000 or so the Friends aim to raise each year. The school also holds a silent auction in the spring to give a boost to the next school year's effort.

FOOD A BIG SELLER

At Ali'iolani Elementary School, the big fundraiser is a food sale. Chicken, brownies, banana bread and portuguese sausage sales bring in $13,000 to $14,000 a year.

But the school last year decided to add a fun fair. The event took countless hours of hard work and for less profit than the food sale, but it was still a success.

"It kind of helps us reach the other goals of our PTA — to bring families together and enjoy each other and strengthen our community," said PTA President Teresa Fujino. "The people who came really enjoyed it. To us, that made it effective."

These kinds of events, which range from fairs and fun runs to carnivals and galas, can bring in a lot of cash, which can be used for pricey purchases or scholarship funds.

Parents from La Pietra Hawai'i School for Girls spent yesterday setting up booths for their annual Children's Fair, which will be held at the school Oct. 22 and 23.

Veteran fundraisers Cindi Yamada, Julie Meier, and Cindy Shih, event co-chairwomen, do it all — solicit funds, donate their time, talents and energy, and fork over their own hard-earned cash.

"We buy tons of scrip and give it to nieces and nephews," said Meier, who helped paint booths yesterday even though she broke her right arm a week ago.

"We enjoy it," added Shih, who has worked the fair through the schooling of one daughter who graduated last year, and will keep at it for another, who'll graduate next year.

Yamada confessed that not all parents share their level of commitment.

"It is a lot of work," said Yamada, who spends virtually every day at the school and has made "thousands and millions of calls" seeking donations.

"Some parents, I think, need to understand that it benefits everybody. Last year we gave the school $15,000."

And parents of Punahou juniors will soon kick off planning for the biggest of all Hawai'i school fundraisers, the Punahou Carnival. The two-day carnival calls for 4,000 volunteers a year, with the major work stretched over two years — the first to train, the second to run it.

The event, the school's only major fundraiser outside of capital campaigns, brings in $350,000 to $400,000 every year, with almost all of that going to financial aid, said Punahou spokeswoman Laurel Bowers-Husain.

Where do kids come in?

Many fundraisers offer incentives for students based on how much they raise, inspiring kids to beg their parents to sell, sell, sell.

Both Shimoda and Fujino have their children bear the responsibility for their fundraising.

Shimoda participates in about six fundraisers a year among Moanalua Elementary, her daughter's preschool and both children's extracurricular activities. While she brings some things, like Entertainment Books, to her office, her son Aaron, 6, does some selling himself.

"For Cub Scouts, he goes in his uniform to our neighbors and does his pitch," she said. "He's selling it. He needs to know he can do it on his own, rather than us selling it for him."

Even her 4-year-old daughter, Robyn, has to tell people that she's selling something before Shimoda jumps in to explain what it is.

Fujino, who works at a school, resists selling to co-workers, and has her children do the selling on their own.

Her older son, who attends Jarrett Middle School, sells to friends and family. Her younger one goes with his grandmother in Wahiawa so he can sell to her friends there instead of hitting up the same people.

"You have to be creative when you're going to bug people," Fujino said.

CASH DONATIONS

That begs the question that Shimoda wonders about: Why don't schools just ask parents to make an outright donation instead of selling things? "I would rather do that than a fundraiser," she said.

"It's so much more effective to say, 'Here's $10 and the school gets $10' instead of 'Here's $10 worth of sausage and the school gets $5.' "

As it is, many schools are making the shift, or letting parents know that cash donations will be welcomed in lieu of purchases.

But fundraisers are probably around to stay, and Shimoda realizes that asking for cash would put a burden on families who can't afford to give as much as others.

For those who can't give outright donations, lower-priced fundraisers such as food sales still give them the opportunity to contribute.

After all, if they have to donate part of their food budget to the school, at least this way they get something to eat.

It works at Ali'iolani in Palolo, which has a very diverse population, ethnically and financially.

Although some families return everything unsold, most will sell something.

"The majority do participate," Fujino said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.