When Small Steps Early Learning Centre found out about the move to level 4 lockdown, they knew it would impact their ‘slime a teacher’ fundraiser for the Cancer Society.
The Matamata teaching team, led by owner Shenaye Green, had to put their thinking caps on to see how they could rally the community and top last year’s $2000 fundraising total.
“When the lockdown happened, we thought it was going to have a way bigger effect this year because we didn’t have much money in the jars”, said Shenaye.
“We started off this year with one jar for each teacher in the foyer and families came in and put coins in for the teacher they wanted to get slimed. Children would come in each day and it was exciting to see which teacher had money in their slime jars.”
The team turned their focus to online fundraising but weren’t prepared for the response. Donations totalled $2,202.40, an increase on last year’s total, despite all the disruption from level four restrictions.
“We really wanted to involve our community as well as our families. We got really into the community last year and this year it was like they already knew what we were doing. We were backed up by them and they got really involved.”
The two lucky teachers chosen, Keri Cook and Cassidy Jones, were happy to take on a deluge of slime in the name of charity, even filming the event for Facebook. The videos have been viewed thousands of times since being posted.
“Cancer has a huge impact on many of our families at the Centre and many of the staff,” says Shenaye “It affects virtually everyone that we see. We’ve decided we’re going to do the same thing every year for Daffodil Day.”
The funds raised by the Matamata centre stay will stay in the Waikato region to support people with cancer in our local communities.
Cancer has a huge impact on many of our families at the Centre and many of the staff. It affects virtually everyone that we see
Shenaye Green, Small Steps Early Learning Centre