Posted: 6/2/2006


Fundraising

Over the past few months there have been several announcements posted about fundraisers for the New Orleans Service Learning (Katrina Relief) Trip that the school has organized for this November. The students and teachers involved have been working to raise the money that they will need in order to make the trip a success.

Several fundraisers have been planned and a few of them are already in the books. There was a basket raffle at last week’s Eastern office picnic which raised $570; there will also be another basket raffle at the Pittsburgh picnic.



There was also a ‘teacher jean day’ established each Friday.

“All the teachers paid money to be allowed to wear their jeans on Friday,” said Sarah Pipich, elementary teacher and chair of the fundraising committee for the Katrina Relief trip. “We raised more than $800 from the teachers doing that.”



”We’re doing really well, we’ve raised a lot of money so far,” she said. “I would say we’ve raised close to $1500, right now. But we’re hoping we get several thousand dollars by the time we go.”



There are many other fundraisers being planned for this trip. There is a car wash planned for the Pittsburgh area this summer, the fundraising committee would like to see more of these car washes hosted throughout the state.



”We’re [also] selling t-shirts; you can see the pictures in the Student Center,” said Pipich. “We’re trying to sell them to everybody in the school, they’re a special shirt. Katie Vigliotti designed them, she’s a student.

“We’re [also] doing a [school] calendar with all the teachers dressed up in funny clothes and poses that we’re going to sell.”



Pictures will be available at the graduation in June. This is another fundraiser for the Katrina trip. Pipich explained that a photographer will be taking pictures of the students as they receive their diplomas. Students will be able to buy packages of the pictures.

”What we’re trying to do is reduce the cost of the trip for the students. So part of the money we raise will go towards making it easier for them to go [because] it costs $500 and some odd dollars a person to get there,” said Pipich. “We’re hoping we can raise enough money to have some left over to donate to the organizations who are working with people still down there.”



About the trip



Pipich said she thinks there are 20 students and 15 teachers signed up to go on the Katrina Relief trip; she is unsure of how many parents are going.



”They are going to be outside of New Orleans doing clean up at people’s houses or at businesses helping put things back together. They might be painting, they might be removing trash, a lot of physical labor. People are going to get in shape,” said Pipich.



The group will be flying down during the week of November 11 and will be working with the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to help the people affected by Hurricane Katrina.



It is too late to sign up to go on the trip, but students of all ages can help organize fundraisers.



“We heard there was a student who’s in the first or second grade who wrote and asked if she and her mom could sell fudge. They had a famous fudge recipe, and this is a way they could help. There are people donating things to be auctioned on E-bay. It’s neat to see how even kids who are really little are helping,” said Pipich.



Anyone interested in helping with fundraisers is asked to e-mail Pipich or Abra Ramsey. There is a Katrina Relief course that they are able to add people to; the course has updates about the fundraisers and other things about the trip.



”There’s still schools that aren’t open, there are hospitals that aren’t open, people can’t get jobs… the statistic that we got from the group that we’re going with is just clean up is going to take until 2013,” said Pipich. “That’s why it’s so important that people don’t forget just because it was a year ago. Not only is it still going on this year when we go, but we could go every year for the next eight years and they would still need people and volunteers.”