Elementary School students raise more than $5,000 to
help fight childhood cancer
Schuylerville Elementary School
students raised more than $5,000 to help
in the fight against
childhood cancers and other catastrophic diseases. They
joined their peers from more than 25,000 schools across
the country to participate in the St. Jude Children's
Hospital Math-A-Thon program. The program poses math
problems to kids, with each solved problem "earning"
donations to the hospital.
The top fundraisers were
third grader Christian Frolish, who collected $350, and
Joshua Signor, who collected $250. These two students
each solved 250 math problems and puzzles to raise
funds.
"We did this because there are unfortunate kids and we
want to help them," Christian commented.
Joshua agreed, adding,
"There are kids all over the world who need help; we
don't want them to die because of health problems. It
just feels good to help."
The top two classes
were Mrs. Nevins' fourth grade with $857 and Ms. DeFilippo's fourth grade with $734 raised.
The general comments from participating students focused
on the importance of helping their own peers and the
fact that St. Jude Children's Hospital provides care at
no cost to families.
Schuylerville students have participated in the
Math-A-Thon initiatives for more than two decades,
raising more than $64,000 in donations since 1986.
Students who opted to take on the challenge were required
to solve a variety of math problems, including puzzles,
pure arithmetic operations and hidden messages. This
year, participants had three options for completing the
work: in a printed workbook, online or on a CD.
"This program is an entertaining and educational way for
students to review their standard math skills, exercise
problem-solving skills and improve their critical
thinking processes while learning about social awareness
and volunteerism," explained Remedial Teacher Judy
Greene, who coordinated the efforts in
Schuylerville.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally
recognized for its pioneering work in research and
treatment of childhood catastrophic diseases. Founded by
the late entertainer Danny Thomas, St. Jude freely
shares its discoveries with scientific and medical
communities around the world. The hospital has treated
patients from all 50 states and from 80 countries around
the world. At St. Jude, no family ever pays for
treatments not covered by insurance, and families
without insurance are never asked to pay. St. Jude is
financially supported primarily by public contributions
through such programs as Math-A-Thon.
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