#BoxTops University – An Incredible Event
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Box Tops University was one of the most fun and exhausting things that I have participated in for a while! We showed up in the morning and were met by crowds of dedicated school coordinators that were there to learn about Box Tops, gain new ideas on getting Box Tops, and to take home TONS of goodies!
Box Tops University was located at General Mills’ Headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They had an amazing campus! When we got up to the Box Tops University area they had this fun area where you could pose and take pictures!! Then they offered breakfast to everyone, and it was soon time to take our seats in the auditorium.
When we arrived in the auditorium General Mills had put together an AWESOME slide show to keep us busy until things got started. I LOVED it! I’m hoping to have a video of it this week so I can share it with you. The entire slideshow was made using products that participate in Box Tops. It’s hard to see in the picture below but “JOIN US BTFE.COM” is made using taco shells, box tops, fruit roll ups, and other participating products.
There were 14 bloggers including me who were invited to attend at the expense of General Mills, and there were I believe over other school coordinators and volunteers there! In fact there were so many people that they had to use the overflow room!
We got to watch a video of Box Top for Education’s Flash Mob they had done several months ago (a surprise school band playing in a grocery store!) It’s definitely worth watching if you haven’t seen it. As soon as the video was over all of a sudden we began to hear this very loud noise from the back which sounded like drums. I was a little confused at first as it sounded like a loud surround sound system, but when I looked back it was a school marching band!! WOW! I have to say it was really incredible! The marching band filled every empty aisle in the auditorium and all across stage and played several numbers- it was absolutely stunning!
During the time in the auditorium we heard from Box Top directors, school coordinators, slideshows, and more. We learned what exactly the Box Top program was, how much schools had raised this year ($59 MILLION!!!), how to submit your box tops, bonus box tops, the processing center, and so much more!
During the break volunteers handed out brightly colored whistles and delicious cupcakes (a new innovative idea launching from Betty Crocker in July called Fun-da-middles!). General Mills treated their school coordinators with dignity and appreciation. They awarded school coordinators for the highest performance, the best increase in performance as well as shooting Box Tops t-shirts into the crowd from a fun General Mills t-shirt gun!
The day was all about Box Tops! They even had other areas of the campus decorated with Box Tops displays! I loved learning about all of the great ideas and information on the Box Tops program, but there was another special fun part of our day. All of the participating Box Tops brands had stations set up outside of the auditorium and were handing out an incredible amount of loot!
I thought my arm was going to fall off by the end of the day! In fact I had seen some of the loot handed out in previous years and so I brought an extra duffel bag along just to hold it all!! There were rows and rows and rows and rows and….well you the point! Cereal, foam fun hands, granola bars, fruit snacks, Ziploc bags, Juicy juice, snacks, Hanes shirts, cookies, gift cards and SO much more! It was like a HUGE free for all freebie expo!
There was even this AWESOME money machine which you could step inside of for a certain amount of time while box tops flew around- whatever you could catch in the air you could keep! I caught over $60 in Box Tops for my husband’s school!
There is no possible way that I could share everything I learned about in one blog post so this post is simply the events of the day. I will be posting separately about all of the Box Tops participating brands, what the program is and how it works, you can read my e-Box Tops post here, and much more! Did you know that homeschoolers can participate in the Box Tops program?
Box Tops University is in absolutely awesome event that I HIGHLY recommend you jump on the chance to go if you ever have the opportunity! I am hoping to go next year as well. This year General Mills generously covered all of my travel expenses so that I could learn more about the Box Tops program.
If you are not signed up for the Box Tops program you can sign up here!
