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QUINCY, ILL. -- Any parent knows having a child in school means having them sell candy bars, expensive gift wrap or fruit baskets to pay for band trips and other activities.

In these days of tight budgets, every penny a school can get is much appreciated.

This past year, the PTA at Quincy Junior High started a program called Shop for Schools.

And the PTA members had no idea their money-raising idea would be so successful at bringing in Cash for Class.

Everybody shops, most people eat out on occasion, so why not help out a local school by shopping and eating where you already do?  That's the idea behind Shop for Schools.  You buy a gift card at face value, spend it, and go about your day.  The business in which you shop then donates a certain percentage of your gift card purchase to the school.  The PTA buys the cards in bulk.  For example, if it buys 1000 dollars' worth of cards, the business gives the PTA an extra $50 card, so the school makes fifty bucks.  The school also can buy gift cards at a reduced rate, then sell them at face value.

Maureen Crickard says, "What this really requires people to do is to support it in volume.  We really need people to use it often because when you're only growing at five percent, it takes a long time to earn money.  If you sell a thousand dollars, you've only made $50."

So far, parents and staff at the Junior High are buying into the program.

Principal Diane Glaub says, "Payday, half the people come down with their checkbooks."

Right now, you can get the cards only at the Junior High office, or through e-mail sent to parents.  That likely will change - more people who are not associated with the junior high school are asking for the cards.

Kelly Crossan says, "I know that the PTA has been able to award the 7th grade Language Arts Department an amazing amount of books that we requested.  I believe they have been able to provide all requests to our school."

The money also has paid for a new laminator for the office, new PA equipment for the PE department, and fish and butterflies for the school's autism class.

Glaub says, "It's just all kinds of things that make the teacher's job easier so all of their efforts can be focused on the students."

There are gift cards for just about everything from grocery stores to restaurants to movies to gasoline and beyond.  The program has been so successful, the PTA hopes to give the junior high ten thousand dollars at the end of this school year.

This program is nothing new for Quincy, the catholic schools have been doing it for years.

Hopes are the program can spread to other schools in the district in the near future.