PT’s Dance-A-Thon benefits hospital Free Care Fund
Assistant principal Michael Henaghan was a good sport about being stuck up to a Peters Township Middle School gym wall. The “tape job”served as a fundraiser at the 2015 Peters Township Dance-A-Thon.
Adam Sikorski signs a ceremonial check for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital following the 2015 Dance-A-Thon.
A team of dancers takes a break during the 2015 event.
Being stuck up isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the principals of Peters Township Middle School recently were stuck up … on a wall, for a good cause.
As a prelude to the school’s fundraising Dance-A-Thon, scheduled for Jan. 27, students purchased strips of duct tape to wrap across their good-sport administrators, until they had enough to hold them in place as temporary wall fixtures.
“It was fun for the audience, because we enjoyed seeing the principals’ reactions, and then the final reaction of the students pulling the things they were standing on out from under their feet,” eighth-grader Breanna Groomes reported.
Proceeds from tape sales started the ball rolling for the Dance-A-Thon, which benefits the Free Care Fund at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, and Breanna is one of the student ambassadors who are spreading the word about the extravaganza.
“Everyone is super excited about it, and how it’s going to be six hours of fun,” she said.
Starting at 5 p.m., the school gymnasium will become dance central as students shake, rattle and roll, or whatever moves they’re doing these days, to the sounds provided by Peters Township disc jockey Vanessa Weber.
“She understands what the kids are looking for, and that’s half the battle,” middle school teacher Melissa Giaquinto, who is on the event’s organizing committee, said.
This year marks the third biennial Dance-A-Thon for the school, with previous efforts generating quite a bit of money: $11,000 for Ronald McDonald House in 2013 and nearly $20,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2015.
The goal is to top the latter amount toward the 2017 cause, which was selected by a schoolwide vote.
“We were looking for something that hit close to home, something that is in our backyard,” Giaquinto explained. “So we offered four different options, and the Free Care Fund came out overwhelmingly above everybody else.”
Students are taking pledges for their Dance-A-Thon participation, with good results so far.
“We reach out to the community a lot, and they respond,” teacher Stephanie Van Balen said. “Everybody is usually willing and ready to help us, which is nice. I think that’s why we’re able to hit some of the numbers that we do.”
She also is part of the organizing committee, which has more than a dozen members.
“Everyone takes on a role, whether it’s to get the kids involved, or to plan the security of the event, or the entertainment and the food,” she said. “There really is a lot that goes into it, and we have teachers who step up and handle all those different tasks.”
As for the culmination of their work, Breanna, who has been dancing since she was 3, really is looking forward to the event and the opportunity to lend a hand.
“To me, the Free Care Fund hit close to home because we don’t actually realize how many kids are really in need,” she said. “We take a lot of things for granted, so hearing about the kids who need the money to get the help that they need got to a lot of people, and that’s why we voted for it.”
For more information about the Dance-A-Thon and to make donations online, visit www.ptsd.k12.pa.us/Dance-a-thon.aspx.