Winola PE teacher Bev Krueger arranged a virtual assembly to celebrate students raising $5,900 for the American Heart Association. With the help of
Sherrard Technology Coach, Steve Miller, the event was streamed from the library to each classroom - and remote students even got to take part.

 

Winola Elementary students raised a total of $5900 for the American Heart Association. For surpassing their $5,000 goal - PE Teacher Bev Krueger spent the day following their virtual assembly interacting with students as the Tiger mascot.

“They’ve been really excited all day about it,” she said. Each year the school rewards students with a big incentive for exceeding their fundraising goal.

Every year, Krueger orchestrates an all-school assembly at the end of their time fundraising. They dance and sing, and celebrate their achievements with prizes, class awards for raising the most funds, and a fun, usually messy, incentive where kids get to choose multiple teachers to put a ‘pie’ in their face.

This year, due to COVID-19 measures in place, an all-school assembly wasn’t possible. Krueger said she was hesitant to have the event this year, “However, I knew that our students and staff needed a sense of normalcy. We have all lost so much this past year: sports, parties, community events. I did not want to add our Kids Heart Challenge to that list.”

She knew it had to look different. Krueger was stationed in the library, Tech Coach Steve Miller was on hand and set up a Smart Board there, and used a laptop to do a live video that was then streamed into every classroom. As each winner was announced, cheers could be heard from every classroom, winners came to the library to be on camera, and accept their reward.

“I feel like the event went exceptionally well considering our alternative format… it just had to look a little bit different so that we could follow our covid guidelines and also make the event accessible to our remote learners.”

The top ten fundraising students got to dump a bucket of confetti on a chosen teacher or staff person.

Kinnick Schiess was the top earner in the school at $500 fundraised, second was Aiden Fuller, $335, and in third place was Jacob Ott with $265. Seven other students individually raised $200+.
"I wanted to provide fun and excitement in a time where we all need it most," said Krueger.