Putnam City’s Lake Park Elementary School held a celebration Friday, complete with plenty of cheering and buckets of vanilla pudding “slime” pouring over the heads of their teachers and staff. The event marked the end of Lake Park’s annual Cancer Drive, where the school topped the $100,000 mark in donations for cancer research at OMRF.
Since 1975, Putnam City Schools have raised more than $2.9 million to fight cancer at OMRF. Cancer Drive funds have paid for laboratory equipment and supplies and funded the Putnam City Schools Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research at OMRF, which is held by Linda Thompson, Ph.D.
“Almost every student at Lake Park has been touched by cancer in some way,” said Susan Steele, the school’s physical education teacher. “We work hard at raising money for OMRF, because we all want to be a part of the cure for cancer.”
Steele, who has taught at Lake Park for 38 years, organizes the school’s annual jog-a-thon, which serves as their Cancer Drive fundraiser. Students, faculty and supporters raised over $7,600 this year, bringing the school’s cumulative total to over $100,000.
At Friday’s assembly, the school’s top 30 fundraisers had the opportunity to dump buckets of vanilla pudding on Lake Park principal John Lunn, Steele and other school staff in front of the entire student body. Each class with top fundraising efforts also got to douse their teacher with the gooey pudding.
“Our students are generous, as is our community,” said Lunn. “But our students are also very competitive, and the Cancer Drive gives them a chance to challenge each other, as well as other Putnam City schools, to see who can raise the most money. It’s wonderful to see them working so hard to give to a good cause.”
