I wanted to let you know that making and selling tamales is a great fundraiser! It's a lot of hard work, however, well worth the effort. On Thursday afternoon, I sent an e-mail to my co-workers, advising them of the fundraiser we were planning. The response was overwhelming! I had thought out of common courtesy, some people would order 1 dozen, but to my surprise, we had about 80 dozen ordered. We decided to do it on Sunday, and called around to local businesses to see who could help us out, even if it was to be able to buy the ingredients at cost.

We had a great response from two local businesses, one let us buy the masa at cost and the other let us buy the meat at cost, which saved us a lot of money. On Sunday morning, me and 5 of my sisters-in-law and 3 nieces along with my son, made all of the tamales.

We charged $15 per dozen, and while most people charge $12 a dozen, no one minded paying $15 since they knew it was a fundraiser and what it was for. It took us about 15 hours to make that many, but we also had the resources to accommodate such a large quantity. If someone decides to do this, I would suggest doing [it] over a few days period of time.

Since I had committed to Monday, we decided to do it all at once and I was lucky to have such a great support system. My son has worked very hard and I am extremely proud of him. We do not have the financial security some families do, and I am glad that my son is learning that through hard work [that] he can achieve anything he wants to.