All of the roughly 900 children, pre-kindergarten through fourth grade who attend Wapakoneta Elementary School, were invited to converge upon the Wapakoneta McDonalds, located at 1376 Bellefontaine St., Wapakoneta, from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11 to raise money to aid sick children and their families in Ohio.
As students and their parents bustled around Mcdonald’s, they also made additional “tip” donations into a cup labeled with their teacher’s name. Teachers competed for the highest number of total donations. The teacher’s cup that overflows with the most generosity, their class of students will receive free McFlurries from Mcdonald’s.
A portion of the sales from Tuesday’s Wapakoneta Elementary McTeacher Night sales will be donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities Dayton, located at 555 Valley St. in Dayton, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that, according to their website, “is committed to keeping families close to the medical care they need” when “families of children [face] complex and life-changing medical diagnoses and injuries.”
“We do a service learning project for the entire school year and we’ve done this for 15 years,” said Darcy Steinke who runs and organizes the event. “We raise money for the Ronald McDonald House because families of sick children that are in children’s hospitals can go to the Ronald McDonald House and they can stay there for free. There were four of us—Des Duncan, Amy Puthoff, Amy Burke and myself—who went to the Ronald McDonald House about a month ago. Amy Puthoff had never been there, so we wanted to get her acclimated to what this was all about.”
Steinke explained this elementary school fundraiser is offered twice per year, once in the fall and once in the spring.
“It’s really a team effort,” said Superintendent Aaron Rex, “There are a lot of teachers here . . . We’ve got people all over who are delivering food and selling cookies. It really shows their dedication to our kids, our school and our community.”
The kids love McDonald’s, Rex agreed, saying that the students also enjoy seeing their teachers out in the community.
“You see how excited they are to see their teacher at Mcdonald’s and give them hugs,” said Rex. “When all the kids come in they place a sticker by their teacher’s name and that’s how we keep track of how many students participate,” said Rex.
According to Rex, “McTeacher Night is a great night, and, as you can see, a lot of people come out to support the school. Mcdonald’s is a great partner with the school—not only for McTeacher night—Mcdonald’s donates a lot to the school.”
Once the event is over, the sales numbers are tallied and the percentage of dollars raised for donation is calculated.
“Mcdonald’s will let us know how much money was made during the event’s hours. The school will get a percentage of the profits and then we donate that money to the Ronald McDonald House. Last year the school raised about $26,000, and this is just one of the things that they do.”
