Principal giving students motivation for fundraiser

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

It’s not surprising that Yarmouth Junior High School principal Don Berry would volunteer to either shave his head bald or dye his hair some bizarre colour if his students meet a fundraising challenge for their school.

After all, he once did wear a dress to school for one week on their behalf.

But that’s what he’s promised his students if they raise $2,720 for a school fundraiser being organized by the home and school association.

The fundraiser, says Tish Muise, a member of the home and school association, is needed to raise money need to held fund the school’s sports teams, the breakfast program, the hot lunch program and other things needed to help the school operate.

Students are collected pledges as part of the fundraiser. Each of the 272 students is asked to raise $10. The class that is able to raise the most money will decide the outcome of their principal’s new hairdo, or lack there of.

In the past, Muise notes, the school might have held a bake sale or hot dog sale to raise funds for the school. But because of the province’s nutrition policy in schools, it’s unable to do this anymore.

“We don’t charge for students to play on school sports teams, because of that we have to raise more money,” she says. Without some of the traditional fundraising methods of the past, schools like the junior high have to come up with new ideas, and ones that provide motivation to the students involved.

The pledges must be turned in by Oct. 1. Berry will sport his new look on Oct. 3.





HUMAN HOT DOGS BRING ADDED MOTIVATION TO STUDENTS

The nutrition policy in schools may say kids can’t eat hotdogs, but it doesn’t say anything about preventing people to dress up like one.

Arcadia Consolidated School will once again seek to reach its goal when collecting money for the annual Terry Fox run, but this year the students have an even bigger incentive for raising money.

If the school raises over $4,000 – which would bring the total funds the school has raised for the Terry Fox Run over the last 10 years to $43,000 – vice-principal Larry Fitzgerald will dress up like a hot dog and depending on the money raised, the students will be able to squirt him ketchup, mustard and/or relish.

If the school reaches the $4,500 mark, principal Janet Sollows will become a human hot dog too. If the school’s approximately 250 students reach the same fundraising total they did last year, $4,769.08, their principal will get squirted with condiments too.

Students are collecting pledges for their run, which takes place Sept. 26.