Forget calendars, candy and car washes, Tri-Cities school is going big with this fundraiser

Chiawana High’s music department wants to sell you a new bed.

They are trading in the traditional fundraisers like candy bars, car washes and savings cards to join a growing list of high school sports and music programs that are selling mattresses.

Custom Fundraising Solutions, a company with a 14-year history of selling mattresses to raise money for schools, is organizing the Saturday, Aug. 17, event for Chiawana.

People can go shopping between 10 a.m and 5 p.m. at Chiawana High School.

The company promises to bring well-known brands to the school and pair them with discounts to entice people to buy the mattresses. The company handles the setup costs, including bringing demonstration mattresses to a gym.

All of the profits go directly to the Chiawana High music department.

While it may seem like a strange way to raise money, Custom Fundraising Solutions says one out of every 10 Americans buy a mattress every year. On top of that, the average family in the U.S. has four mattresses in their home.

While the mattress fundraiser is new to the Tri-Cities, it is becoming a fixture in other communities across the state. The Seattle branch of the company has a list of 32 fundraisers planned, most of them in Western Washington.

This story was originally published August 16, 2019 at 12:11 PM.