Students raise $8,000...and principal

Reaching nearly $3,000 over their original goal, Saratoga Elementary students raised more than $8,000 last week to support the American Heart Association.

The students participated in both "Jump Rope for Heart" and "Hoops for Heart", which are fundraisers that support the AHA. In those programs people contribute a certain amount of money for each jump or shot made into a basketball hoop, and the money goes toward the AHA.

Coordinator Shayley Love, a teacher at SES, said the students participated in the programs a little differently this year.

"What we did for our event was a one time donation, and the day of the event they came in and I set up stations," she said. "During their time frame they just rotate from one station to the other, and we jump, play basketball. We had little mini-tramps set up this year, and the kids did dribbling drills, long jump and different things that went along with jumping and shooting. Our Friday activity coordinator Mary Graves was in charge of all our snacks for us, so the kids had snacks and we had some door prizes."

Love said the participating students raised $7,954.11 through Jump Rope for Heart and Hoops for Heart, but that additional money from spare change donations put them over the $8,000 mark.

"Our kids raised $7,954.11 and we also did a 'make a change', and the change the kids brought to school totaled to $539," she said. "We had a grand total of $8,493.11, and the class that raised the most was the first grade class, which raised $2,226 altogether. The top kid for Hoops for Heart was Katelyn Bifano, who raised $335, and the top kid for Jump Rope for Heart was John Steele, who raised $400."

Love said she was pleased to the students raise nearly $3,000 above their projected goal.

"Our goal was $5,600 and we shattered that by quite a bit, so it was pretty awesome," she said. "We had approximately 80 students involved this year, and we probably had between 15 and 20 volunteers that came that day to help us out. Our donation to the American Heart Association is that $8,493.11."

To celebrate surpassing the goal, the entire school was honored with a dance and root beer float party in the gymnasium Feb. 26. Because of a promise made in case the goal was reached, students took turns duct-taping principal Dave Rangitsch to the gym wall, and witnessed how long he could stay there before falling.

Rangitsch, wearing a bodysuit made of black garbage bags, was duct-taped to the wall with multiple silver, purple and yellow duct tape strips, which included an yellow "P" for "Panthers" across his chest and stomach. Rangitsch lasted around 15 or 20 seconds before finally falling down from his own weight.