I'm treasurer for a small amateur group, the Elgin Theatre Guild, in St. Thomas, Ontario.

I was wondering if you might have any ideas for fundraising, or are preparing to do an article on the topic.

Right now, our group holds yardsales (this year it's tied to the Iron Horse Festival, a 4 day celebration of our railway heritage and a favourite vacation for train nuts), do a major Haunted House ( we call the organizer the Queen of Hallowe'en for good reason), and work bingos at a local bingo hall. This year, one of our members, a jewelry designer, has created a gold and diamond necklace from donated jewelry, which we will sell tickets for during the entire season, and raffle off on the last night of the last show. We're thinking about hosting a Valentine's Day casino. We did a casino as our year end party, not expecting to raise too much money, but we got over $300!

What we need to do is replace our roof, which is slate and about 120 years old. We need, as you can imagine, a lot of money. Like almost $100000 to do it properly.

I know other groups must have ideas, or need help finding new ways to raise funds for whatever they need. Heck, I'll be more than happy to share with anyone how we set up the casino, or I can the info on our Haunted houses for another group. After all, we're all in this together as amateurs.