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SCA raises $11,000

• Sherwood Christian Academy lower campus students raise thousands to help in the fight against heart disease.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Almost 40 Sherwood Christian Academy lower campus students got to pelt their principal with water balloons Friday.

The kids got the chance at the aquatic assault after annihilating their $1,000 goal for an American Heart Association fundraiser, raising $10,845.26.

“The whole two weeks (of the fundraiser), I never knew we would raise $10,000,” said physical education teacher Rebecca Fyock.

Children at the school’s lower campus started the fundraiser, called Jump Rope For Hearts, on April 1 and raised funds for two weeks. The money didn’t start coming in, though, until the second week of the drive, she said.

American Heart Association Youth Market Director Heather Proctor, who attended the Friday waterfest, said the school raised the third most funds of the 120 schools participating in the fundraiser in Southwest Georgia.

When you consider the fact that the school only raised $300 last year for the same fundraiser, the feat is all the more impressive, Proctor said.

“It’s phenomenal. It’s huge,” she said. “I haven’t had anyone with as much growth in the seven years I’ve been here.”

Of the campus’ 183 students, 133 participated in the fundraiser. Of those 133, 39 raised $100 or more. The students who raised $100 or more brought in about $7,000 of the total, Fyock said.

Those students also got to rocket water balloons at Principal Jill Johnson.

School officials had promised the students to let them have popcorn and watch a movie one day if they did well with the fundraiser. But because the kids raised nearly $11,000, Fyock told the students Friday they would get an extra treat.

“But now,” Fyock told the students en masse as they sat outside, “one afternoon you get to miss schoolwork and come to the multipurpose room and eat popcorn and watch a movie on the big screen in there.

“And,” she paused, “on that day you get to wear your pajamas.”

A round of boisterous cheering from the children ensued.

Ivy Gay, who raised the most funds for the project, bringing in $405, said she was excited for the chance to hit her principal with four water balloons — one for each $100.

“It was awesome because you get to like, throw it at her and if you missed she would like laugh at you,” the third-grader said.

Gay raised the funds by enlisting her mother’s help, who took her around the neighborhood to ask for donations. The girl also set up a Web page through the AHA to allow people to donate online.

“It makes you feel good because you’re saving lives and stuff,” she said.

Proctor said the money raised will go mostly toward funding research by the AHA.

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