Canon-McMillan Spirit Week Raises Money for Charity

It's the end of the school year and Canon-McMillan High School students decided to do something different.

Raising money for a good charity is a great idea. What about duct taping the principal or hitting a favorite teacher with a pie in the face?

Canon-McMillan students will be doing all three and then some.

Teacher Rick Bell’s Leadership 2 classes have organized two spirit weeks full of fun fundraising events with all the proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. According to Bell, it costs $3,900 to make one wish come true through the foundation. The school is hoping to raise enough for as many as three wishes.

Each day of the spirit weeks will have a theme featuring appropriate apparel:

Monday, May 21: College Shirt Day

Tuesday, May 22: Twin Day—pairing students with other students or faculty to dress alike

Wednesday, May 23: Dress-up Day

Thursday, May 24: Decade Day—dress in the style of your favorite decade

Friday, May 25: Pittsburgh Day—dress with any Pittsburgh theme and Hat Day

Tuesday, May 29: Tie-dye Day

Wednesday, May 30: Make-A-Wish Day and Blue Day

“Pay to Duct Tape Principal Dave Helinski” will be held during lunch periods on Wednesday, May 30. The family of Joe Graziani, one of Bell’s students, is donating the duct tape.

At each lunch period that day, Helinski will stand on a table next to a pillar in the cafeteria. Students will pay for pieces of duct tape to wrap him to the pillar. At the end of each lunch period, the table will be removed to see if the principal is taped securely to the pillar or will unceremoniously fall to the floor.

Also on that Wednesday, students will pay $1 to eat at a sundae bar, not usually found in the cafeteria. is donating the ice cream. Turtle Twist is donating bowls and condiments for the sundaes.

Throughout the spirit weeks, students will buy tickets at $1 each. They will place their tickets into containers, each with the face of a faculty member on it. On May 31, the five teachers who have had the most money spent on tickets placed in their containers will be selected for the pie in the face.

Students’ names will be drawn from the containers at random for the honor. During both weeks, students and faculty will be making donations toward Make-A-Wish. Also on May 31 will be the traditional Senior Volleyball Tournament.

People from the community wishing to donate toward Make-A-Wish may drop off donations or checks made payable to “Make-A-Wish” at the high school office during spirit weeks or mail to Make-A-Wish, Canon-McMillan High School, 314 Elm St. Extension, Canonsburg, PA 15317. All donations must be received no later than Thursday, May 31.