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E.J. Blott school is all smiles
Liberty
For 90 minutes, teachers and administrators of E.J. Blott Elementary School had to keep the attention of about 480 students — all wearing white attire — standing in groups across the football field.
They were to coach the students into forming a human smile Thursday afternoon as part of a fundraiser for the Smile Train, a New York City organization that provides free cleft-palate surgeries in developing countries.
The school, as of Thursday, raised $350 from the teachers. This was more than enough to sponsor one surgery, which costs $250.
The organizer, fourth-grade teacher Joanne Sura, approached school Principal Mike Palmer three weeks ago as World Smile Day approached.
“At first we said maybe a few [students],” she said. “Then we decided, crazy us, we’ll do the whole school.”
To organize the students and teachers, Palmer and Sura turned to Michael Summers, the school’s band director.
Summers used the same computer program to organize his marching band into various formations on the field for the human smile.
This way, before the first child stepped on the field, he knew the exact dimensions needed to make the smile.
While Sura and Palmer were on the field measuring the radius from the middle of the face to its outer edges and the distance between the eyes, Summers gave orders from the coach box atop the bleachers.
And, finally, the splotches of white transformed into a smile, stretching from 30-yard line to 30-yard line.
“OK, everyone look this way,” Summers said through a loud speaker followed by the snap of cameras.
“Good job, everyone,” he said and the smile erupted into cheers.
As for the event, Sura is not sure if she’ll try to make it annual.
“You know never know,” she said, giving an exhausted sigh afterward. “Maybe we can break the world’s record for biggest human smile.”