Elementary Students Celebrate with Ronald McDonald Sept. 19

Visit Celebrates Fundraiser Success and Focuses on Building Good Character

9/18/2012

The infamous Ronald McDonald will visit two Central Valley elementary schools tomorrow to lead all-school “Giving Back” assemblies. Students earned the visits during the 2011/12 school year for collecting the most pop tops to benefit the Spokane Ronald McDonald House.

Progress Elementary and Adams Elementary will be honored for winning the fundraising competition, which brought in 1,225 pounds of pop tops from all 12 district elementary schools and the Central Valley Kindergarten Center. Ronald McDonald will visit:

• September 19 at 9:20 a.m. - Progress Elementary, 710 N. Progress Road
• September 19 at 1:00 p.m. - Adams Elementary, 14707 E. Eighth Avenue

The 45-minute assembly teaches kids about building good character by sharing their time, talents and gifts with each other and their community. Ronald McDonald will use magic, music, an eye-popping puppet and lots of laughter to deliver his message that focuses on Citizenship, one of the monthly character traits of the Partners Advancing Character Education (PACE) initiative. Central Valley School District is an active participant in the Valley-wide PACE initiative. The assemblies will also kick off this year’s pop top competition.

Adams Elementary parent volunteer Doug Cooper has headed the pop top fundraiser for the past five years at the school. Two years ago, he took the idea district-wide to challenge all 13 schools to the friendly fundraising competition. Cooper is again coordinating this year’s district-wide contest and hopes to surpass last year’s collections to benefit the Spokane Ronald McDonald House. The first year of the district-wide competition netted 1,150 pounds of pop tops.

“I think it’s important to give our kids a fun, meaningful way to get involved in community service while also supporting local families in need,” said Cooper.

The Ronald McDonald House program, comprised of 270 Houses in 30 countries, provides a “home-away-from-home” for families so they can stay close by their hospitalized child at little or no cost. For more information, visit www.rmhc.org. Progress and Adams Elementary schools are two of the 22 schools in the Central Valley School District, educating about 370 and 450 students, respectively.

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