Boosterthons, fun runs, etc

Do your kids do this in your school? To me it seems over the top. They go directly to the classrooms to solicit students to obtain pledges, and then reward the students who collect the most pledges with prizes in front of other students. High pressure sales tatics for elementary school kids. They enlist high energy kids to push the program, teach leadership, etc, and the marketing company walks away with nearly 50% of collections. The first year this came to our school, my little girl was crying her eyes out because she thought she was being "bad" by not collecting enough pledges.