Girard kids duct-tape educators to wall after leukemia fundraiser

By jeanne starmack

starmack@vindy.com

GIRARD

When a horde of duct-tape wielding middle-schoolers comes for you, you’re pretty much stuck.

So it was for Girard Intermediate School Principal Greg Bonamase and fifth-grade teacher Ashley Belcik.

Surrounded by fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders Thursday afternoon in the school gym, there was no way around it — they were going on the wall.

Guidance counselor Pam Baker was the enabler, providing rolls and rolls of duct tape — and she just hoped it was enough.

“We needed a lot of duct tape,” she explained, adding that Lowe’s and Home Depot came to the rescue by donating it.

The whole school was in the gym to celebrate the end of a three-week-long fundraiser to help fight leukemia. Called Pasta for Pennies, the nationwide campaign raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through Olive Garden restaurants.

The kids had collected coins and currency in the previous three weeks, donating dollars, too, toward the duct-taping of their favorite adult candidates in the Stuck for a Buck contest.

On Thursday, they learned who their victims would be. Two kids from each classroom eagerly and securely taped Bonamase and Belcik to pillars on each side of the stage at the front of the gym.

One of them was sixth-grader Matt Belcik.

“My BROTHER taped me to the wall!” Ashley Belcik said.

“Make sure you duct-tape her good!” instructed fourth-grader Ajani Phillips.

“Yeah, you did,” said Belcik.

Bonamase and Belcik stood on chairs while the taping continued. Would those chairs be taken out from under them?

“We should! Are we gonna?” said fourth-grader Jenna Acierno.

After all the students filed out to the gym floor to sit and admire their handiwork, Jenna’s hopes came true.

“We’re gonna remove those chairs, and hopefully, they’ll be stuck to the wall!” Baker said.

After they left Bonamase and Belcik hanging, the kids learned they’d raised an impressive amount of money.

The school’s goal had been $1,275, and it raised $3,396.

“That is amazing!” Baker said.

The class who raised the most money would be treated to lunch at the Olive Garden in Niles. The winner: Belcik’s class raised more than $500.

When it was all over, Bonamase reflected on his plight.

“Just shut the lights out when you go home,” he told those milling around trying to figure out the best way to get him down.

Was he really afraid they’d leave him there?

“I was more afraid they didn’t have enough duct tape to hold me up,” he said.

There was also that not-so-small issue of how to scratch his itchy nose.