WSVN — Alice and Rosie are two local moms who wanted to start their own business. So they came up with a web site.
Alice Roque: "Our web site is called MyCotorra.Com which means my chatty parrot."
It's kind of like the popular site Groupon, but for families in their neighborhood.
Alice Roque: "We wanted to give it more of an edge with a word of mouth."
So they reached out to nearby businesses interested in offering their services at a cut rate in exchange for free advertising.
Rosie de Rosa: "We realized we could bring together the families and the merchants through technology."
But these moms went a step further, they wanted to give back by involving the schools.
Alice Roque: "The best way of working with the schools we found was fundraising, because that's very difficult for them especially in today's economy."
So they created the Sunday Funday challenge.
Alice Roque: "Each Sunday, a different school benefits from the program."
Here's how it works, the school chooses up to 15 deals of the day from local merchants. Then they send out e-mails to all the parents and teachers to buy the deals they like that Sunday.
Rosie de Rosa: "They get 100 percent of our profits for that day."
Christina Krablin is one of the parents in charge of fundraising efforts for West Laboratory School in Miami.
She said using the web site is much easier on parents.
Christina Krablin: "They can do it at home, they can do it at any time, and they're purchasing things that they want to purchase, rather than being forced to purchase wrapping paper or candles."
Plus, she thinks it's more effective.
Christina Krablin: "I do think we're making more money because it's reaching more parents, it's more accessible."
So what is the school going to do with all that cash?
Christina Krablin: "With the money that we raise we're actually going to purchase class sets of novels."
Local shop owner's like Jackie Gonzalez like MyCotorra too. The site lets her introduce her business 'Little Chef's Kitchen' to families while helping her community
Jackie Gonzalez: "I love participating in MyCotorra's Sunday Funday because it's all about giving back to the schools."
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.mycotorra.com/ Facebook/mycotorra.com http://twitter.com/myCotorra