Putting cows on the front page since 1885.
Claysburg-Kimmel Elementary kicked off its second annual coin drive for St. Jude's on Friday, Sept. 6, with a toboggan "hat day." The students wore knit hats to show their support for children who have experienced hair loss resulting from treatment for cancer or other devastating illnesses.
The entire student body attended an informative assembly with Kendra Myers, from Chili's Restaurant in Altoona, who explained how this national chain hosts an annual fundraising effort in support of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to ensure no family ever receives a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.
The students were challenged to bring their "coins" to help Chili's Restaurant in this endeavor. Chili's offered a free lunch reward, delivered to the school, for the entire homeroom that accumulated the most money for St. Jude's during the following week. They were further challenged by Matthew Hall, elementary principal, who agreed to being hit by water balloons from the students from that winning homeroom.
Each morning the coins were collected and counted. At the end of the day, the top three homerooms' totals were announced. It became quite the competition with St. Jude's Hospital being the true winner. By the end of the week, the CKE students pulled together 98 rolls of quarters, 138 rolls of dimes, 127 rolls of nickels, 415 rolls of pennies and miscellaneous change and paper bills for an amazing total of $3,170.55 from their coin drive. The faculty and staff added an additional $345.86 from a "dress-down day," for a total contribution of $3,516.41 toward Chili's national goal for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Our total this year exceeded CKE's last year's contribution by $1,463.77.
"What an amazing learning experience for everyone involved," Hall said. "The students got a life lesson by 'children helping children.' This was such an awesome, rewarding experience for all involved, adults and students alike."
The school had two homerooms in very close competition, Vanessa Shaw's fourth-grade class and Dale Hartman's kindergarten class. Chili's has agreed to reward both homerooms with lunch and Hall agreed also to being "water ballooned" by both classes. An assembly was held Friday morning, Oct. 4. During this assembly, Chili's was presented with a check for the school's contribution and Hall was "ballooned."
Reader Comments(0)