Coleytown Elementary Donates More than $13,000 to Save the Children

The Coleytown Elementary School PTA presented a check Friday to Save the Children Director of Development (and Coleytown parent) Ann Marie Fox for $13,617.04. It was the product of a two-week in-school Read-A-Thon. 

"We were thrilled when the first round of pledges came in!" remarked Hallie Wofsy, who serves on the CES PTA Community Outreach committee and who organized the effort. "We wanted the children to be directly involved and to feel that their actions can make a difference."

Hallie works with committee members Dawn Shmaruk and Karen Howes throughout the year to coordinate many local outreach efforts on behalf of CES.  

Teachers were instrumental in engaging students for this cause, setting aside classroom time every day so that every student could read, giving the Read-a-Thon for Haiti a class participation rate of 100 percent.  Students enthusiastically gathered pledges from family and friends, and the generosity of these sponsors was overwhelming (donations are still coming in).

Principal Melissa Paolini-Kay feels the involvement level at CES is key: "We are fortunate to have a really strong community at Coleytown, and it is so inspiring to witness what these students were able to achieve. We have a responsibility to teach beyond the classroom, to model how to be citizens of the world.  We are so proud of the effort of our students to help the children of Haiti in their time of need."