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By DONALD MOTTERN | Staff Writer

HELENA – Students, staff and the community have much to celebrate at Helena Elementary School after this year’s Boosterthon week greatly exceeded fundraising goals.

The school hosted their annual Boosterthon Fun Run on Thursday, Oct. 12, which capped off a week that focused on each class and student working together as a team and rallying together to help their school. For Heather Leon, PTO president at HES, this year was a tremendous success.

“Our PTO set a goal of $50,000 to purchase Orff instruments for our music department as well as playground maintenance and other projects,” Leon said.  “We exceeded that goal by almost $10,000.”

All in all, the fundraising event raised a total of $59,622, an amount that fully represents the fact that Boosterthon week has historically been the school’s largest fundraising event of the year.

The Fun Run saw each student either run, or walk, roughly 35 laps each as family, friends and their teachers cheered them forward. As with similar fundraising events, sponsors of each student pledged donations for each lap that students completed.

“We had over 2,200 sponsors that donated,” Leon said. “We are so excited to be able to purchase the Orff instruments, as they are inclusive to all abilities and developmental levels.  We will be able to purchase enough that every student will have one to use during music class.”

In celebration of the extent of the event’s success, students were treated to a schoolwide popsicle party the next day on Friday, Oct. 13.

Additionally, students in Mrs. Henderson’s Kindergarten class, Mrs. Brown’s first-grade class and Mrs. Ling’s second-grade class were able to take their shot at plunging members of the school’s administration into a dunk tank that was brought in for the occasion.

This opportunity was awarded due to their being the classes that raised the most in donations for their respective grade levels.

“We are so grateful for all our generous HES families and their continued support,” Leon said.