Peters Township Dance-a-Thon nearly doubles fundraising goal
When it comes to raising money for a good cause, Ava Blasey takes the task seriously.
The seventh-grader started seeking pledges for Peters Township Middle School’s Dance-a-Thon, benefiting Ronald McDonald House Charities, by knocking on her neighborhood’s doors.
“Then I pretty much called everyone I knew,” she recalled, “and my mom was getting annoyed because she wanted me to go to bed.”
Ava was far from finished, though.
“Even the day of Thon, she came home from school and went out again to get more before she showed up,” her teacher Missy Giaquinto said about the Jan. 31 event.
To which fellow instructor Stephanie Van Balen added:
“In the rain. She was dedicated. She wanted to be one of the top pledge earners. So she even did it all the way up to the last moment.”
Her perseverance helped make Ava one of the three students who raised the most Dance-a-Thon money, along with fellow seventh-graders Kaitlyn Strine and top earner Skyler Gaudio.
Their efforts, in turn, helped “Git Up and Dance 2020” generate more than $47,000 toward the Pittsburgh and Morgantown, W.Va., chapters of Ronald McDonald House, which provide places for families of hospitalized children to stay at no charge.
That particular cause especially hits home for Kaitlyn, as a member of her family had an extended stay at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
“My parents didn’t use Ronald McDonald House, because we were close enough. But they were there all the time, so I can only imagine a family that was coming in,” she said.
She raised money by calling family members and their friends, plus some neighbors made pledges.
“Then I made a video, and my dad posted it on Facebook,” she said. “And so a couple of his close friends donated, too.”
Everything added up to a total that far exceeded the Dance-a-Thon’s original goal of $25,000, which seemed like a reasonable figure considering the last such event in the middle school was in 2017.
“We decided to bring it back, and the principals were on board right away, very supportive,” said Van Balen, who coordinated the night with Giaquinto. “The staff completely bought in this year, and Dance-a-Thon was pretty much on our mind all the time.”
Other fundraising activities got the ball rolling, including a combination escape room-scavenger hunt-bonfire at the school in October, generating about $2,000. In December, various faculty members, administrators and even the custodians took student-tossed pies to the face, to the tune of $1,200.
When time came for the Dance-a-Thon, the event lasted from 5 to 11 p.m. and featured numerous game and activity booths for which participants could buy tickets as another source of funds.
“The goal for most people was to stand most of the night,” Kaitlyn said. “They did sit down for dinner, but there definitely was a lot of cooperation with dancing.”
That included Giaquinto leading a special line dance every hour and the students in general boogieing to the music.
“You would be surprised,” Giaquinto said about the tune selection. “There was some old stuff.”
John Denver’s 1971 hit “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” in fact, prompted requests to play it a second time.
Although the Dance-a-Thon represented a middle school initiative, the effort to raise money extended throughout the district, according to Principal Adam Sikorski. For example, teachers at all schools and even the administration building had the opportunity to wear jeans for a week if they helped support what Ronald McDonald House has to offer.
“I think it’s really important because you wouldn’t want to be alone in a hospital while you’re sick,” Ava said, “and it would be much better if you had a place to stay with your family.”