The PTOs at Consolidated and Meeting House Hill School (MHHS) are always abuzz with fun activities and the fundraisers they run support a number of important initiatives for the schools, including funding for exciting school-wide enrichment programs, teacher grants, extra materials, staff appreciation, and more. With Raise Craze, an acts-of-kindness-based fundraiser, at Consolidated the students earned over $30K. At MHHS, their Pourquoi Read-a-Thon yielded donations of over $24K.
“Our students worked so hard to make the world a better place by spreading kindness with 1,750 acts of kindness,” Consolidated’s Assistant Principal Karen Gruetzner said. She explained that the students asked family and friends—often with the help of social media—for donations to the PTO, and then paid it forward with acts of kindness. PTO Co-President Tricia Bennett said, “We were so excited with the overwhelming positive response the fundraiser brought to the school” and stressed that the PTO board wanted a fundraiser that took the focus off of the money. “Raise Craze was a fundraiser every student was able to participate in regardless of the amount of money they were able to raise because everyone can be kind.”
Gruetzner noted that “We collected items for the animal shelter, and made cards for our local veterans and first responders, making it possible for ALL students to participate. In addition, most of our students completed acts of kindness outside of school throughout our community and beyond.” There was a healthy competition with four traveling trophies that went from classroom to classroom, depending on the class that logged the most acts of kindness each day, plus a very friendly Kindness Monster who roamed the building. She explained that “The talented PTO painted a mural on the wall and added sticky notes each day, one for each act of kindness logged!” And the rewards to celebrate their hard work were many. Bennett said that the students earned a Covid-safe school-wide dance party, a magic show, a pajama day, extra recesses, a bounce house party, special class-wide recognition for 50 or more Acts of Kindness, plus the K through 2 students will duct tape Principal Rob Spino and Gruetzner to a wall. Both will kiss a pig for the ELC. “Yikes,” Gruetzner joked, going on to say with all seriousness, “This was truly a most impressive fundraising effort by our PTO, our families, students, and donors. We would like to send our sincere thanks and appreciation to all.”
At MHHS, the Read-a-Thon was a massive hit, not only for its fundraising capabilities, but also as it encourages extensive reading. The students were encouraged to read pourquoi tales, which are essentially folktales that explain the origin of something. There were incentives for the top three teams, including 1st Place: Special PE session with Mr. Hudak & Mrs. Aiezza went to Mrs. Goldrick’s class; 2nd Place: STEM/STEAM activity with Mrs. Berberian went to Mrs. Meade’s class; and 3rd Place: Dance party with Seven Stars Studio went to Mrs. Macdonald’s class. In addition, all students were treated to a Bubble Bus party followed by a school-wide assembly where 90+ students participated in silly stringing the principals with 200 cans of silly string.
PTO member Stefanie Marlow, who spearheaded the fundraiser, explained that “The goal of the PTO is always inclusivity for all students when planning an event, but we decided to take it one step further. The MHHS read-a-thon brought our entire community together.” She said that, in the kickoff for the fundraiser “While there was no pressure for students to feel obligated to raise money, we did ask that they each take the initiative to create an account with their parents and share the platform. The kids respond really well to this type of encouragement and it is a fantastic lesson on the positive power of ‘word of mouth’ information. We had 283 of 446 kids participate.” In addition, Marlow secured generous donations through sponsorships from the construction partners onsite—O&G Construction, JCJ Architecture, and Colliers International. Marlow noted that she “was honored to be part of such a huge project. The way the community came together to support our students had me in awe every step of the way. Our timeline was short, our demands were high and we were met with favorable answers to every request.” She went on to say, “The teachers at MHHS were engaged, supportive and even embraced the read-a-thon by incorporating lessons. Their support did not go unnoticed!”
Plans are already in the works for next year’s iterations of these remarkable fundraisers.
By Sarah Opdahl