Boardman students ratchet-up fund-raising skills for grand prize

BOARDMAN

Faculty members lined up on the stage in the Market Street Elementary school cafeteria with only garbage bags to shield them.

Meanwhile, hundreds of tiny voices filled the air, chanting for Jim Stitt, their principal. They wanted what the school promised them, what they all gathered Thursday afternoon to see: grown-ups getting messy.

The students came together to witness, and perhaps participate in, sliming, hair coloring or throwing a pie in the face of faculty members or PTA mothers as a reward for the school’s efforts in raising more than $10,000 for the school’s first read-a-thon.

For exceeding their goal of $3,000, they deserved this.

The read-a-thon, started by Amy Ditz, PTA council president, began Feb. 29. Students needed to have some incentive for raising money for the school.

“We had a ton of kids who would normally maybe not be all that excited about reading in their free time, jumping on board,” said Julie Kamenitsa, the school’s reading-intervention specialist.

Besides individual prizes, the school entered all the students names into a drawing to dirty up teachers and PTA moms. Students also were allowed them to increase their chances with purchasing each pie or hair-color ticket for $1 and $2 for a slime ticket.

Read more about the event in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.