NORTH MYRTLE BEACH—Students at Holy Trinity School went above and beyond to raise funds for the American Heart Association during Lent. As a result, they got some amazing rewards, and their teachers and principal showed what good sports they are.
The kids started raising money in February and originally had a goal of $1,500, but they met that goal quickly and the numbers kept climbing as families, friends and members of the community climbed on board with the campaign, said Karen Luzzo, principal.
“Every time we turned around our kids were bringing in more and more donations and the amount would go up — $3,500, $5,000, it kept climbing,” Luzzo said. “Along the way, as they would meet each new goal we came up with fun things for them do as rewards, and by the end of February they had raised $9,350. That’s a big accomplishment for our little school.”
Holy Trinity has 86 kids in K-3 through fifth grade.
Jackie Rand, the physical education teacher who organized the fundraiser, endured some memorable, all-in-good-fun events as rewards for students. For example, kids duct-taped her to a wall, dumped buckets of ice water on her, and poured ice cream and syrup on her head. Other teachers got into the act and let students spray Silly String on them. Luzzo and others also agreed to be “color-bombed” with colored powder.
While raising money, the kids also showed off their dance skills. Rand said she assigned each class a dance to learn through the “Kidz Bop Dance Along” videos, which they then performed in front of the entire school.
“All of the kids, especially the fifth-graders, took it really seriously, and they really amazed me with their dancing,” Rand said. “We had line dancing, we had dancing to the song “YMCA”, all kinds of styles. It was really a fun afternoon.”
On April 1, the students earned even more rewards for their efforts. They were able to dress up as super heroes, enjoy treats from an ice cream truck and have a dance party.
“This was my first time organizing something like this, and the best part was seeing the kids take such pride in raising money for such a great cause,” Rand said. “They deserve all the acknowledgement because they really worked hard.”
