Fun-raiser
Pennies for Patients brings out school’s creative side, while bringing in more than $24,000
The annual Pennies for Patients fund-raiser ended recently and the grand total raised by Watertown Middle School was $24,277.51. Even though it is $2,000 less then last year’s total, it is still an amazing amount due to the economy.
The business boxes put around the town brought in a great amount of money for the the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s school and youth program. The average was $20 per box, although some businesses raised outstanding amounts, $300 to $400.
The top homerooms for each grade were:
Eighth grade: First place went to Mr. Conneely, whose students brought in more than $1,000 dollars; second place was Mr. Manoukian, with $847.93; and third place was Ms. Fuchs’s room with $580.31.
Seventh grade: First place went to Ms. Kuzemcak’s homeroom, which brought in $11 , 214.01; second was Ms. MacAulay with $947.88; and in third place was Mr. Martin with $641.97.
Sixth grade: First place was Mrs. Donato with $2,010.72; second place was Ms. Powers with $1,000.11; and third places went to Mrs. Power, who brought in $765.03.
Eleanor Donato, who is in charge of the fund-raiser at WMS, was very proud that the school came in first in the region.
“This year was good because of broad participation in terms of everyone contributing, considering the economy,” said Donato, who thanked everyone who helped with the fund-raising.
The students and teachers held many interesting and creative fund-raisers. Mr.Oates held a “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot” contest in the seventh-grade hallway for a homework pass. It was a dollar to compete, with all proceeds going to Pennies for Patients.
Eleven students signed up. As there was an uneven amount of people, he started the contest with a question (“What is the capital of Texas?) and whoever got the correct answer first got a first-round bye. He put the kids in two rows facing each other, and then they finally competed. Each match was two out of three. The five that won (and the player with the bye) competed, and then it was lowered it to the final two, Jake Roche and Nick Giordano. It was a best-of-five match. Jake Roche won.
“Yes! I have no homework!” Jake shouted after he won.
Mrs. Willoughby’s homeroom held a yard sale. For sale were various necessities for school emergencies, such as pencils and books. They also had polo shirts, board games, and video games. Everything was at a reasonable price, such as a pencil for 10 cents.
You may have seen signs around the seventh-grade hallways for the raffle that homeroom B113 held. The prize was a copy of the old version of a silver iPod Shuffle. The tickets were sold for 50 cents each or you could buy five tickets for $2.
The teachers helped raise a lot of money, also in interesting and creative ways. The best example may have come from Mr. Conneely, who raised money by growing a beard. He made a video about it, “To Shave or Not To Shave,” which can be seen by following this link to Youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkgRHS9FlPk )
(Watertown Splash staff reporters Matt L., Kaylee C., and Gemma C. contributed to this report.)
–June 14, 2010–
