`Commodore Perry effort makes some X-mas wishes come true`

By Tom Fontaine
Herald Staff Writer

For the second year in a row, the Commodore Perry Area School District has attained the status of “Wishmaker.”

While the district hasn’t implemented high school recess or canceled tests and grading, it has again sent more than $3,500 to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

This year, the district raised $2,356; an amount that was matched by the Shenango Valley Foundation — for a joint donation of almost $5,100. The donation was presented to the Make-a-Wish Foundation Wednesday morning.

The money helps grant Christmas “wishes” to children with serious illnesses. According to Donna Devy, a teacher at Commodore Perry and a Youth Education Association adviser, the Make-a-Wish Foundation considers a $3,500 donation a “Wishmaker.”

The YEA coordinated the district’s efforts. Stacy Gravatt is the group’s president and Ms. Devy and Sherri Carnevale are advisers.

Ms. Devy said elementary students collected quarters. Each quarter collected earned students a candy cane and a two-inch star that could be placed on a wall in the school.

Ms. Devy said two walls are blanketed by the stars — and some of the students quit filling out and hanging their stars during the collection because they simply earned too many stars to write their names on and hang.

Elementary classrooms competed against each other during the collection and the top-collector among them raised $280 in quarters. The winning classroom was awarded a pizza party, Ms. Devy said.

High school classrooms also competed against one another and weren’t confined to collecting quarters. The winner received a complimentary ice cream sundae party.

Students collected the bulk of their donations at local businesses and at the district’s Christmas concerts.

“Some of the students actually broke into their own piggy banks or into their Christmas money (to make donations),” Ms. Devy added. “The students really got into the idea of giving.”

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