1. PTSA Income - The money is income for the Newport High School Parent Teacher Student Association. This money is used support teacher grants for textbooks, special learning opportunities, and other learning aids. The profits are a significant portion of the Newport PTSA's budget.
2. Reduced skiing/snowboarding purchase cost - Reduce the cost of the riding/skiing experience for the students (and parents) of the community by providing lower priced new and used gear. It is especially important to lower the entry costs for those just trying the sport for the first time but it also significantly reduces the cost for a family with multiple members needing gear. If new skiers or snowboarders and families can't afford to buy the gear then the industry will slowly die.
Provide an opportunity for students (and parents) to sell skis, snowboards and accessories which they have grown out of, either physically or through increased skill level, again reducing the cost of the skiing or snowboarding experience. Many families trade up each year.
3. Volunteer learning opportunity - Provide interested students an opportunity to learn about setting up and running a small business. We have over 200 volunteer employees with up to 120 working at one time that need to be found, placed in jobs, trained and supervised. We have a huge job advertising in school papers, local newspapers, road signs, local businesses, Internet, etc. We set up a 10,000+ square foot store, filling an empty high school facility with borrowed tables, chairs, clothes racks and other props to display skis, snowboards, clothes, boots, poles, underwear, socks, bindings, etc.
In about 6 hours, we acquire over 5,000 inventory items which all need to be tagged and arranged for sale. We help customers find the what they need and manage the sale of the inventory with all the accompanying records and funds. After the sale, we close down the swap, calculate the sales for all the individuals and stores who supplied the equipment, write checks and then help the customers find and remove unsold inventory. All this with volunteers, many of them new each year.
4. Fun - But mostly because the swap is a massively big, fast, and a great time. Talking and working with friends, some of whom you only see at the yearly ski swap or out on the slopes. Also because its great fun helping a lot of people get an opportunity to get prepared for the fabulous and fun months ahead on the mountain slopes.
Thank you for checking out the swap. The swap enhances the Newport High School educational experience in many ways.
Don Meyer,
Newport PTSA Swap Chair
PS. In 2004, Sherry Grindeland, Seattle Times staff columnist wrote an article about the swap.
Ski-swap stop turns into annual task