The children of St. Matthew’s School in Tyrone combined learning, fun and helping others all in one activity as they raised $1,119.06 in the Math-a-Thon for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
St. Matthew’s School has participated in the fundraiser for at least 10 years, and last year the school raised $798.14 for the children’s hospital.
Participating students found sponsors and then completed a math booklet of 200 – 250 problems. After the booklet was completed, the students showed their sponsors and collected pledges and donations. The money raised goes towards the needs of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The Math-a-Thon booklet is grade-specific, so students were able to help the children of St. Jude’s while improving their math skills at the same time.
For certain amounts of money raised, prizes were available such as a T-shirt, sportsbag, or even tickets to Six Flags Theme Park. However, principal of St. Matthew’s, Mrs. Jamie DiDomenico, stressed to the children the importance of the Math-a-Thon was to help St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Yesterday at lunch, DiDomenico was able to hand out T-shirts, sportsbags and certificates of achievement to all students who participated in the worthy fundraiser.
In a letter to St. Matthew’s School from St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, it was announced the successful completion of the Math-a-Thon at St. Matthew’s School. Now in its 25th year, the Math-a-Thon is an educationally based fund-raising program sponsored nationally by Six Flags Theme Parks, who provides free passes to their parks for every student raising $35 or more.
The students who participate in the program learn to do more than just math problems. They also learn the importance of helping children who are less fortunate than themselves. Through the Math-a-Thon they are able to provide a future for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Children with more than 200 forms of cancer and other catastrophic diseases find hope at St. Jude. Since its founding in 1962 by the late entertainer, Danny Thomas, the survival rate for most forms of pediatric cancer have risen dramatically. In fact, today more than 70 percent of all children with cancer will survive their bout with the disease.
“We are very proud of our students for working so hard on the Math-a-Thon,” said DiDomenico. “With their help, St. Jude Hospital will be able to create new treatments that may one day lead to a cure for many forms of cancer that will benefit the children of our state, our country, and around the world.
“I also want to extend our thanks to the Tyrone community for supporting our students. It takes all of us to make a difference in the lives of children with cancer, and we can all f0eel proud of our response.”
