Woodburn Independent Online

FPMS celebrates fundraiser success

Teachers get heads shaved, ice cream poured over them

• By: Lindsay Keefer  
• Published: 12/22/2009 11:07:19 AM

Photo By: Lindsay KeeferFPMS
French Prairie Middle School students add sprinkles to their human sundae, also known as seventh grade teacher Amy Ramirez, at the school’s celebration for raising $1,500 toward tsunami victims.

WOODBURN — Mayhem broke out at French Prairie Middle School on Friday, with teachers losing their hair, the support staff getting pies to the face and Michael Jackson making an appearance.
 
The excitement was the staff’s response to the students’ enthusiastic donations to Medical Teams International (MTI) for their Asia Disaster Relief Fund.
 
“We told the kids that teachers would do crazy things for every $250 we raised,” said organizer Helen Peynado, who is also a seventh-grade language arts and social studies teacher.
 
The students were able to raise $1,500 in three weeks. More than $600 came from eighth-grade math teacher Doug Grant’s students.
 
“He gave them goals and two classes surpassed their goals,” Peynado said.
 
At the assembly, students shaved their teachers’ heads, threw pies and whipped cream in their faces and even decorated one teacher as an ice cream sundae.
 
Some teachers took the initiative and dyed their hair or danced.
 
The dance-off between students and teachers ended with Principal Eric Swenson’s dramatic entrance and dance solo dressed as Michael Jackson.
 
The fundraiser stemmed from the seventh grade project after visiting MTI’s headquarters in Portland.
 
“They had to pick a cause that requires action,” Swenson said.
 
The school collectively chose the Asia Disaster Relief Fund and raised funds during the weeks surrounding Thanksgiving.
 
MTI’s main focus is the Aceh Province of Indonesia, on the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, where up to 700,000 people were displaced after the December, 2004 tsunami.
 
The donated money goes toward building health infrastructure, providing dental care, improving maternal and child health, child survival strategies and water and sanitation projects. To learn more,visit www.medicalteams.org.

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