Students Raise Funds for St. Jude and Win a Play & Park Structures Playground!

To see the full article and pictures please go to http://www.stanwichschool.org/playground.asp

Students at the Stanwich School are helping to save lives by participating in the St. Jude Math-A-Thon to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Students asked their friends and family to pledge a specific amount of money for every math problem they solved.

Last school year, Stanwich students raised the most amount of funds for the Math-A-Thon out of any participating school in the country. In recognition of this accomplishment, St. Jude’s, in partnership with PlayCore, has awarded Stanwich with $50,000 worth of playground equipment. Jennifer Maffeo, a representative from St. Jude, and Lisa Gillott, with her four-year-old son, Sam, who is diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, announced the prize at Stanwich’s Charter Day celebration in January. Stanwich students are now able to enjoy the new playground after the ribbon-cutting ceremony which took place in May.

This year’s event, which ran from January 11 through February 26, had an impressive number of students participating. In Grades 4 through 6, 100 percent of students raised funds, while students in grades K-3 had more than an 92 percent participation rate. All of Stanwich’s K - 8 students helped to raise funds for the world’s premiere pediatric cancer research center. These funds will help St. Jude in its ongoing fight against childhood catastrophic diseases. This year, Stanwich’s Math-A-Thon raised more than $32,000 for St. Jude’s, and in the past four years, Stanwich has raised more than $151,000.

“Our goal in holding this event is to help children who are stricken with diseases like cancer, Aids, sickle cell disease and other illnesses,” said Laurel Peterson, coordinator of the event.

Students work diligently to raise the funds for the world’s premiere pediatric cancer research center. Funds raised will help St. Jude in its ongoing fight against childhood catastrophic diseases. “Our students have a wonderful time participating in the Math-A-Thon. Talk about a win/win situation: generating donations for such a wonderful charity, empowering our children with the knowledge they can make a difference and getting our kids to do additional math problems,” said Julie Colligan, Head of Stanwich School’s Primary House.

St. Jude’s is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. No family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay.