By Hector Flores
This past weekend marked the end of Calhoun High School's long-range tsunami relief fund-raiser, which was themed, "To What Lengths Would You Go?"
The fund-raiser culminated with the shaving of Principal David Seinfeld's goatee on Friday, May 6, and a performance by English teacher Sean Formato's band on Saturday, May 7, during the school's Battle of the Classes.
Seinfeld had made a deal with students: Raise a certain amount of money, and his goatee comes off.
Seinfeld said, "It's all for a good cause, so it feels good. I have had my goatee for over 24 years, and before that, it was a full-grown beard. The shaving of my goatee was easy, but the hardest part was the work it took teachers and students to raise the money. I'm just glad to have played a part in the fund-raising."
Junior Talia Colon, 16, a member of the school's World of Difference club, said that the idea of having Seinfeld's goatee shaven really inspired students.
"Mr. Seinfeld's goatee shaving brought the school together for a common cause," she said. "We tried to help the entire school in raising money for the cause, and we felt that as a school, we should show that we care a lot about world issues."
Michael Harrington, the school's assistant principal, said the concept for the fund-raiser was developed shortly after the tsunami disaster.
"In early January, we came from the vacation and were affected by the disaster," Harrington said. "We started a committee of 10 school administrators and teachers to brainstorm on ideas on how to raise money for the victims."
Harrington said that after the first brainstorming session, committee member Lorraine Lupinskie, the social-studies chairwoman, came up with the concept of "To What Length Would You Go."
For the fund-raiser, students collected money, and for every $1,000 raised, a teacher or group of teachers did something out of the ordinary. The goal was to raise $10,000 for the Save the Children Foundation.
According to Harrington, letters were sent to every teacher asking them to suggest things that they would do that kids would find interesting. A list was compiled, by order of importance, and put in a chart so that the kids would save that amount of money.
Some of the crazy stunts included:
¥After the first $1,000 was raised, special-education teacher Wendy Pilgrim came to school dressed as a cheerleader.
¥After $4,000, math teacher George Lessig came to school wearing a toupee.
¥After $6,280, the whole math department came in dressed as nerds.
¥At $9,000, social-studies teacher Brian Moeller shaved his head.
¥At $9,500, Seinfeld shaved his goatee.
¥And at $10,000, Formato's band gave a performance.
Moeller said that the fund-raising event had a special meaning for him. "I have a friend, a teacher from Valley Stream, who survived the tsunami," he said. "She helped save lives and was taken care of by the people there. She is one of the reasons why we did this."
But the fund-raiser would not have as successful if not for the hard work of the school's English Department and its students.
Harrington said the fund-raising didn't start until February. Much of it was done by World of Difference club members, who collected funds during sports and extracurricular events.
"After a month and a half, we collected almost $4,000," Harrington said. "We still had a long way to go. It was at this point that some of our English teachers began looking for more ways to increase our collections."
Peggy Kurtz, the English Department chairwoman, and English teachers Richard Perry, Justin Uliano and Sean Formato decided to focus classes on raising funds.
Junior Jarryd Ruff, 17, one of Kurtz's students, explained that in every English class, after $100 was raised, a student or two could take over a lesson.
"We watched the movie 'Platoon' and related it to a book we were reading called 'The Things They Carried' by Tim O'Brien," he said. "They both dealt with the Vietnam War."
Junior John Gooley, 16, and Ruff's classmate, added that in another class, students watched the cartoon "The Family Guy" and related it to pop culture. "We found literary elements in it," he said.
Kurtz added that classes wrote poetry and others did creative writing. "A lot of the kids gave up their lunch money, and every day they reminded us to collect it from them," Kurtz said.
In a month and a half, the English department collected $7,000. Kurtz gave a special mention to English teacher Julie Walz's classes, which each raised more than $200.
"We set a goal for $10,000, and Mr. Harrington is now writing a check for $11,000," said Kurtz. "It took all of us teachers and students to raise this money. But the credit goes to the students. It's hard to explain how well they were trying to save money for the tsunami victims. They should be very proud of themselves."
Comments? Hflores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
