Our SHOPS gift card program is a major MCA fundraiser. You buy gift cards from your retailer of choice (groceries, gas, home and garden, entertainment, restaurants, and much more) and the retailer gives us a percentage. It costs you nothing extra. Really, we’re just asking you to change your method of payment!
SHOPS is very flexible, from ordering to delivery. We will work with every budget, routine and schedule.
Why?
By participating in SHOPS and buying gift cards that you can use on a daily basis, you are benefiting the school.
Every year, the MCA Membership passes a budget that includes a $250 SHOPS fee that supports our gift card fundraising campaign. We hope families will see this as an opportunity to help MCA raise much-needed money to support their children’s education.
What’s in it for families? As you raise money for MCA by buying gift cards, you earn back a portion of your SHOPS fee. If you raise more than $250, you will make a huge difference for your children’s school.
What’s in it for the school? With everyone’s participation, imagine how much money we could raise for MCA. That helps with keeping tuition from rising and it can provide for other school needs as they arise.
How?
It’s simple. If you usually shop, for example, at the Real Canadian Superstore, instead of paying with debit or credit, use a gift card that you buy through the SHOPS program. Maranatha gets 4% of the value of that particular card (if the card is $100, that’s $4 in the school’s pocket). Some retailers, like Windsor Crossings, give Maranatha 10%.
Check out our SHOPS store to see all the available cards. There are more than 50!
You can order from our website, but payment is made directly through e-transfer to mca.shops.orders@gmail.com or you can drop off a cheque to the office.
When?
Most years, we have a table set up in the front entrance of the school, staffed by parent volunteers with a limited stock of cards and the ability to order others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are restricted in the sale and distribution of the gift cards.
But our parent volunteers have found a winning formula!
The payment and online/emailed orders need to be received by Saturdays at noon. The cards arrive by Friday of the next week (sometimes Thursday).
Please contact Patty Broom in the office to make arrangements to send the gift cards home with your children or you are welcome to pick the cards up from the office. *Post-dated cheques are accepted within one week.
For the summer months or extended holidays, you can buy your stash of cards all at once and use post-dated cheques to cover the total over a specified number of weeks. Please see SHOPS staff for more info.