Teachers, Staff Dressing Down With a Purpose at Hawthorne Elementary
Dress Down Fridays can be a fun respite from the button-down world of formal business attire.
But for the faculty and staff of Hawthorne Elementary School, Dress Down Fridays have a greater purpose: to fundraise for various charities during the school year.
The program returns the 2014-15 academic year, allowing faculty members to wear casual attire such as jeans, said Principal Jerry Schulman, who instituted Dress Down Fridays when he became principal three years ago. Last year was the most successful year for raising money—$4,195—through donations made by staff members, he said.
One charity is chosen by the faculty for each of the 10 months of the school year. Last year, money was donated to Gilda’s Club of Westchester, which provides social support for individuals with cancer and their families; Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk; Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome (SADS) Foundation; American Heart Association; Children’s Tumor Foundation; Ronald McDonald House of the Greater Hudson Valley; Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; Autism Speaks; Alzheimer’s Foundation; and Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides scholarships and other assistance for spouses and children of U.S. military members killed or disabled in service.
Assisting the SADS Foundation hits close to home for Schulman. He lost a niece at 21 to a heart rhythm disorder, which was hereditary, in 2006.
Although no donation goal has been set for the new school year, Schulman said he was hopeful the total would surpass last year’s, especially since the program’s popularity has been growing at the school.
“The sky’s the limit,” he said.
