Community Corner

Middle School Student Aids Oil Crisis in Gulf

Raises $1,100 for World Wildlife Fund Through Raffle at Roger Ludlowe Middle School

Lucia Pierson, an eighth-grader at Roger Ludlowe Middle School, has been a consistent fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund since she was in fourth grade.

So it was only natural that Pierson, 14, would aid the non-profit during the biggest crisis posed to wildlife in her lifetime - the huge and ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's affecting everything," Pierson said in her Unquowa Road school this afternoon. "It was a big problem and it can't be stopped...This oil spill is affecting not only fishermen, but there have been animals that have been dying."

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Pierson decided to hold a raffle in her school where students, staff and teachers could win any of about 40 prizes that were donated by area businesses. She solicited prize donations from about 40 businesses over the past six weeks and sold raffle tickets, with the help of fellow students, during lunch periods in Ludlowe middle school beginning June 21. Each raffle ticket cost $2.

Justin Tomczyk, an eighth-grade social studies teacher, and Owen Zimmerman, an eighth-grade science teacher, aided the fundraising effort by agreeing to dye their hair in whatever color students chose if Pierson raised at least $500.

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"The whole thing was to get kids excited," Tomczyk said, adding that his hair just had to be dyed purple for today.

"That is right, isn't it?" he asked Pierson.

This afternoon, Pierson, First Selectman Ken Flatto and Ludlowe teachers, staff and students chose raffle tickets from bags of merchandise that had been donated, which included an iPod, skateboard, camera, jewelry and stuffed animals. Everyone who bought a raffle ticket could select the type of prize he or she would like to win and the tickets went into a bag that either contained or designated that prize.

About a dozen winning raffle tickets were selected this afternoon (Denis Kelly, a Ludlowe student, won the grand prize, which was an iPod) and the rest of the tickets are scheduled to be selected Wednesday.

Glenn Mackno, Ludlowe's principal, said, "As an administrator, I'm always proud of my students. When they go above and beyond for somebody else...it lets you know we're doing the right thing."

"Students contributing to needs outside their world, to me, that's the icing on the cake as an administrator," Mackno added.

Pierson said she was happy that so many people helped her with the raffle - from her mother who drove her to stores, business owners who donated merchandise and teachers who dyed their hair to everyone who bought raffle tickets and students who helped sell raffle tickets. "That really meant a lot to me," she said.

Pierson said she's held school fundraisers for the World Wildlife Fund since she was in fourth grade and that she raised $3,000 through a raffle when she was in fifth grade at Osborn Hill School.

"I hope I can add to the big pile of donations the World Wildlife Fund is trying to add to this cause," Pierson said of the oil spill and her latest fundraising effort for the organization.


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