The seniors in Mrs. Diane Gimpel’s English classes at Archbishop Carroll raised $462.88 for PatrioTHON, an annual event that raises money for childhood cancer research. Their donation helped PatrioTHON raise more than $8,100.
PatrioTHON is Carroll’s version of the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon and was held March 27. Although PatrioTHON is a one-day event, money is raised for it through various means prior to the dance marathon.
Mrs. Gimpel said that in the broader pursuit of finding a cure for cancer, $500 may not seem significant. However, if every school donated $500, or even if every classroom at Carroll contributed $500, it would make a substantial impact.
Seniors donated the money in Mrs. Gimpel’s class during a PatrioTHON-related event called Stall Day. Stall Day works like this: Students bring in change to donate to PatrioTHON. Their teacher must count the donated coins before class can begin. More coins = more time the teacher spends counting = less time for instruction.
Alex Rosen, one of the participants, contributed $10 in pennies and $5 in various other coins.
“I brought them to stall Mrs. Gimpel because I didn’t want to have class that day, plus it is going to a great cause,” Rosen said.
Stall Day at Carroll was Tuesday, March 19. However, Mrs. Gimpel — with permission from Mr. Eric Tamney, director of Campus Ministry and faculty moderator for PatrioTHON — held Stall Day in her English classes on Friday, March 22.
“I asked Mr. Tamney if I could do it on Friday instead of Tuesday because I had a test that I had to give on Wednesday,” said Mrs. Gimpel, who wanted Tuesday to do a review. “Mr. Tamney said I could have the stall day on Friday, which worked out great because we had shortened periods that day so it wasn’t like the students would miss a lot of material.”
School was on a two-hour delay schedule and classes were shortened on March 22 because about 20 percent of the school community went to the boys basketball championship in Hershey on Thursday night, March 21, and returned home late.
Utilizing communication platforms such as Remind, Email, and Schoology, Mrs. Gimpel notified students about the fundraising initiative to encourage their participation. Additionally, she offered extra credit to the class that raised the most funds.
Mrs. Gimpel’s students met the challenge. Four of her five English classes brought in so much change that Mrs. Gimpel spent the entirety of the class time counting. She also was counting change during her second period preparation period and her fourth period Honors Journalism class, which did not participate in Stall Day because it is an elective that has only four students.
Mrs. Gimpel’s seventh period emerged as the winner with a contribution of almost $180. Eighth period came in second, contributing about $150. So many coins were contributed during those periods that not only did seventh and eighth period students have no English instruction, two students from eighth period, Chloe Meyers and Allison Armstrong, stayed after school to help Mrs. Gimpel finish counting the change. The three didn’t finish until about 3 p.m.
