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The New Castle Area School District’s campaign to “adopt” a Red Hurricane senior to defray the cost of a graduation cap and gown didn’t last a day.
Instead, one donor generously stepped forward to adopt all future graduates.
The individual donor, who requested anonymity, gave enough money to buy all the caps and gowns for the entire graduating class of about 170 students, said high school Principal Sean Van Eman. Within 21 hours, he received over 40 donations and raised more than $7,000 from his Facebook appeal.
The project, called “Hurricane Recruitment,” asked New Castle graduates to “adopt” an upperclassman by paying $35 for their graduation attire.
High school English teachers Beth Ondako and Robert Lee, the latter of whom is also the school’s music director, were credited with the idea as senior class advisors.
“We’re always looking for ways to help seniors save a little bit of money,” Ondako explained in a phone interview Monday. “Students have to pay for college applications, prom tickets, and many other expenses.”
She said that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when seniors weren’t able to have graduation parties, many schools donated money for photos on their lawns. I remember that they were “hiring upperclassmen.”
“I thought, what if we ‘adopted a hurricane’ to raise funds for the cap and gown? Mr. Lee gave him a nice touch on Facebook. We are a great team in that sense,” Ondako said.
The notification was posted on Facebook at 2pm on February 28th, and all seniors had been hired by 11:05am the next day.
Once the required amount was donated, she asked people if they wanted a refund.
“Many of them say they keep their checks for other senior expenses,” she said, adding that the extra money is good for students who can’t afford to attend prom or other activities. he added.
The only overflow money kept in the fund is what people told us to keep. The other money would be refunded, she said.
Van Eman said the amount raised has exceeded the cost of the cap and gown, and although the district is no longer actively collecting funds, remaining donations are still flowing in.
The people who contacted us were companies and individuals, some of them alumni, some just local residents.
“Some people still want to send a check, and we’re not going to say no to them,” Van Eman said.
“We expected only 20 to 30 children to benefit from this, but we were overwhelmed by the influx of people donating and giving back,” Van Eman said. Ta. “The donations came in quickly, many of them alumni. We are really happy about that.”
District Superintendent Dr. Greg Paladina commented: So many people came forward, but in the end we didn’t need that many because we had generous benefactors who covered the costs for the entire class.
“I am overwhelmed by how many people are trying to support our students.”
Ondako and Lee are in their first year as senior advisors.
Ondako said she is thrilled with the response.
“I’m beyond excited, absolutely ecstatic,” she said. “I think our kids are getting a very bad reputation. This is because these donors and all these people believe in the students of the district and what it means to graduate and to be a hurricane.” I think it means you know what to do. You’re always going to be seen as a Hurricane, so you should wear this New Castle High School diploma as a badge of honor.”
dwachter@ncnewsonline.com
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