Did you know driving safely and sensibly can help the environment? You can put a twist on the old car wash fundraiser that educates and informs people about the benefits of being responsible vehicle owners and drivers!

A car wash is a tried and true method of raising money. You can spice up a regular car wash with a few extras, however, and let people know how they can drive green! All it takes is talking a local rental shop into donating the use of an air compressor, and the auto store into donating a box of tire air pressure gauges.

Running cars and trucks with low tire pressure causes gas mileage to go down, CO2 emissions to go up, and your tires to wear out faster and need to be replaced! Have a small flyer made up on recycled paper that lets people know about this, so they can read it while you wash your car. You can even have one of your signs read ‘free tire air pressure check!’

When you are done washing, the tires should be cool enough to check the pressure. The inside of the car door will have a sticker letting you know what the proper pressure should be set at. Tell folks that oil change stations often set the psi to 32 as a standard, even though all vehicles may not require that specific pressure!

Show each customer how you checked the pressure with your nifty gauge, and fill each tire to the recommended pressure with the compressor. Let people know that checking their own air pressure with a good gauge is the best way to monitor their tires; and what do you know - you have some for sale for an additional donation!

Your flyer can include additional tips, such as accelerating and decelerating evenly, using cruise control on the highway, and other ways to increase your gas mileage and reduce wear on the vehicle and tires. This type of educational fundraiser not only increases your donations, but gives you the chance to show people about the benefits of driving green!