Pay it Forward

Congratulations to our 6th grade students with their successful pay it forward projects.  These students raised over $5000 to donate to a variety of charitable organizations.  We are so very proud of them!

Please read the complete News-Herald story below.

Gabrielle Sweet, 11, left, Hannah Brown, 13, Lauren Vrban, 12, and Jennifer Kiss, 12, all sixth graders at Mater Dei Academy in Wickliffe, pose with their handmade hair ties, clips and headbands. The team sold their accessories to raise money for St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital as part of their “Pay It Forward” service project

By Elizabeth Lundblad, The News-Herald

In October, each sixth grader at Mater Dei Academy in Wickliffe was loaned $10 of the school’s money for a “Pay It Forward” service project.
The students were the first class to participate in the project, which started Oct. 26 and was due April 8.
Proposed by Principal Loretta Pilla and implemented by Mary Ridler, religion teacher for grades sixth through eighth grade, the project was a hit with the students.
“They all really surprised me, truthfully,” Ridler said of the inventive ways each student figured out how to grow his or her original $10.
Working individually or as a group, the project’s objective was to provide a service or function to raise money for a charity of the students’ choosing.
“At first they didn’t like it at all,” Ridler said, “But as they started figuring out plans, they really got into it.”
A few of the teams raised more than $1,000. The entire sixth grade class raised more than $5,000, which is being distributed to 11 different charities. Some of the charities included St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
“One group of girls went out to Pat Catan’s (Craft Centers) and hosted a Christmas craft fare,” she added. “There was a group of boys who first put together a Chinese Raffle at one of our Chik-fil-A nights, which raised about $700. Then they organized a basketball shooting contest at the school, which brought their total to a little more than $1,100.”
Twelve-year-olds Colin McCrone, Carmen Matteo and Anton Martincic were the group that planned the basketball shooting contest.
“It was pretty fun and we raised a lot for our charity,” Colin said.
Carmen and Anton both said they would’ve liked an earlier start to the project to have an extended earning potential time frame. They recommended starting in September next year.
Ridler said she plans on heeding her students’ advice, and intends to start in September next year.
“This is a multi-department project, it’s not just for service or religion class,” she added. “They’re working on business management, and math, because they have to keep track of everything they spend and collect. For English they had to create brochures about their projects and in computer class they had to make their final presentation about how it all went.”
Principal Pilla said she was so impressed by what the students have accomplished in the first year of what the school plans on making an annual project.