Students duct tape principal to wall for Kids Heart Challenge.

Students duct tape principal to wall for Kids Heart Challenge.

Pirate News is a presentation of Hart Public Schools in partnership with Oceana County Press.  

By Allison Scarbrough, Editor.

HART — It’s not every day you get to duct tape your school principal to the wall or shave your teacher’s head.

Motivated by these whacky opportunities, Spitler Elementary School students raised over $18,000 for the Kids Heart Challenge. Spitler’s fundraising total of $18,314.18 put the school in second place among mid/north Michigan schools.

Spitler students raised over $15,000 for the Kids Heart Challenge last year, tripling the amount they collected two years ago.

Last year, they were motivated by the chance to win the opportunity to shave physical education teacher Dean DeVries’ head. DeVries once again offered his dome for shaving this year, but an added incentive was the opportunity to duct tape Principal Andrea Degen to the wall.

Lola House won the head-shaving rights with a total of $931 raised. Willow Saunders won second place, and Owen Nordman finished third.

Grades competed for the opportunity to tape the principal to the wall. Second grade won with a $4,802.33 total, and first grade took second place with $4,334.18.

In school colors, second graders taped their principal to the gym wall in a heart-shaped design last week.

Forty seven students earned their trip with Principal Degen to the Hart Public Library playground by raising $150 or more. 

Alison Oomen’s class raised the most money as a classroom with $2,099.52, earning a pizza party. Sara Nordlund’s class earned second place with $1,862.56, and Misstee Saunders class took third place with a $1,739.05 fundraising total.

“They raised money to help kids with weak hearts,” said DeVries. “We’re just trying to bring an awareness to those kids who are a little bit less fortunate than us in terms of their heart health.”

Please consider helping to fund local news. Mason County Press and Oceana County Press are available for free thanks to the generous support of our advertisers and individuals. Three ways to help us: Venmo: @MasonCountyPress; Paypal: MasonCountyPress@gmail.com; Mail a check to PO BOX 21, Scottville, MI 49454. 

This story is copyrighted © 2022, all rights reserved by Media Group 31, LLC, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454. No portion of this story or images may be reproduced in any way, including print or broadcast, without expressed written consent.

As the services of Media Group 31, LLC news services, the information posted within the sites are archivable for public record and historical posterity. For this reason it is the policy and practice of this company to not delete postings. It is the editor’s discretion to update or edit a story when/if new information becomes available. This may be done by editing the posted story or posting a new “follow-up” story. Media Group 31, LLC or any of its agents have the right to make any changes to this policy. Refer to Use Policy for more information.