UNION — Pizza, popcorn, soft drinks, and candy and the option of either dancing in the cafeteria or going out to the playground were on the agenda of students at Foster Park Elementary School during a school fundraiser Thursday afternoon.
Barbara Palmer, school principal, said Friday that the afternoon of food and fun was to raise money to send the school’s fifth grade students to Camp Greenville in 2013.
“It’s a three-day overnight trip which gives the students the opportunity for hands on learning about the environment,” Palmer said. “We’re hoping to raise enough to pay for the buses and drivers to take them to and from the camp. It usually costs us around a thousand dollars.”
To help raise the required funds, Palmer said the school held an after school “social” Thursday afternoon, giving the students the opportunity to contribute to the trip while enjoying some of their favorite treats and recreation.
“The kids bring their change or dollars and buy pizza, candy, popcorn, and drinks,” Palmer said. “They then have the option of either dancing to music in the cafeteria or going outside to play games.”
Palmer said Thursday’s social raised $350 and that the school will continue to hold fundraisers to secure the required funds between now and the trip to Camp Greenville scheduled for March.
The YMCA Camp Greenville Environmental Education Program provides teaching activities which take place in the outdoors to enable students to experience nature through hands-on exploration. The goal of the program is to promote in students a lifelong awareness and understanding of nature.
According to its website, students at Camp Greenville “explore a 1,600 acre classroom high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We have many natural ecosystems to explore — from hardwood forests to lakes and streams. In natural settings terms like ‘caddis-fly larvae,’ ‘folded mountains,’ and ‘community’ take on immediate significance as the students experience their meaning firsthand.”
While the school will pay for their transportation, Palmer said the students must pay for their meals and lodging at an average cost of $125 per student. She said the school’s fifth-graders have already raised some of the money they’ll need by selling candy.
Anyone who would like to contribute the school’s and the students’ efforts to raise money for the trip to Camp Greenville can call Foster Park Elementary School at 429-1737 and made a donation to the school’s activities fund.
Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@heartlandpublications.com.
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