Ashern Early Years School students raised the most money the school has ever raised for the Terry Fox Foundation this year.
After three weeks of fundraising, the 80 Ashern Early Years School students collectively raised more than $3,200 in honour of Terry Fox. Grade 1 teacher Andrea Gryba organizes the school’s fundraising campaign for the Terry Fox Foundation each year. She said this year’s total is the biggest it’s ever been — by two times the previous amount.
“We want to raise money for cancer research, of course, but Terry said he never wanted this to end,” she said. “Someone has to keep it going. He always said, ‘one step at a time,’ so that’s what we do to keep it going.”
Each year, the school gives students some incentive to fundraise for the cause. This year, the student who fundraised the most money would be able to put a pie in the teacher of their choice’s face. The school’s done this incentive a time or two before, but it garnered results like never before this year.
At the beginning of their fundraising efforts, two brothers in Ashern Early Years School posted a video to their mom’s Facebook account explaining their fundraising challenge and what they would win if they fundraised the most. At the end of their video, the brothers pied each other in the face—their efforts gave them the win, and the pair raised more than $600 on their own.
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The next highest fundraiser brought in around $500; together, the top seven fundraisers brought in about $2,000. The students who fundraised the most money in each class (Kindergarten to Grade 4) then got to pie the teacher of their choosing. Gryba said each teacher got the pie to the face at least once, but she and a few other staff members got it upwards of three times. There were eight pies, each a type of pudding and topped with whipped cream.
“I couldn’t stop laughing,” said Gryba. “And then we had pudding in our nose and burning eyes from the whipped cream, but it was totally worth it.”
Gryba said lots of family members of school students came to watch the teachers get pies in the face, and the gym was unbelievably loud throughout the entire event, making the afternoon one to remember.
As she starts to plan next year’s fundraising campaign, Gryba is considering the idea of students choosing between pie-ing their teacher or having their teacher pie them, though nothing is confirmed yet.
