From staff reports
The Clarion County Career Center staff and students surpassed their goal for its annual Coins for a Cure campaign which concluded last month.
The students were challenged to raise $3,000, which they have reached in previous years.
The total collected this year was $5,085.40, bringing the Career Center’s six-year donation total to the Clarion Hospital Cancer Center to more than $18,000, according to a press release from the center.
Cosmetology student Madison Greenawalt, designed a T-shirt which the students sold by taking orders. The T-shirt design, along with the option of buying Coins for a Cure T-shirts using the center’s school colors, was the idea of the welding instructor and instructional aide, Brad Hoover and Sharyon Lauer.
Instead of collecting coins in each of the classrooms this year, containers were displayed in the lobby with a photo of each of the instructors. The instructor’s container with the highest amount collected agreed to be the target of a water balloon drop if the goal amount was reached.
Community member Ron Flick, saw the school sign and brought in two coffee cans full of coins to donate to the cause. In order to help his money grow, students and staff were able to pay a dollar to guess how much they thought was in the cans. Katie Hopper from Keystone guessed within $3.27 of the amount and “donated” the amount into her instructor Traci Wildeson’s container.
Two student assemblies, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, were held as a reward for the students and staff. Traci Wildeson’s container had the most money in it, so she was the target of the water balloon drop.
Tracy Myers, office manager at the Clarion Hospital Cancer Center, and Ray McGunigle, member of the board of directors of the Clarion Sunshine Project at the Cancer Center, were on hand at both assemblies to accept the donation and to share with the students how these funds are used to help those fighting cancer.
McGunigle also presented the school with a certificate of appreciation from the Clarion Sunshine Project board. All funds were donated to the Clarion Sunshine Project.