Crest Memorial Raises Funds for Scholarships

WILDWOOD CREST – Crest Memorial School held its annual Fun Friday celebration May 12 with many of the school’s students and their families partaking in games and activities to support two local scholarship funds.
Fun Friday is an event for the school community that involves food, wacky relay games, music, raffles for great prizes, a carnival and a competitive kickball game.  Each year, school staff members volunteer to run the event that raises funds for two scholarships given annually to Crest Memorial School graduates.  
Many local businesses donated items and gift certificates for raffles that were drawn throughout the evening.  Included in those items were tickets to sporting events, salons and spas, clothing, toys, and gift certificates to many of the area’s fine restaurants.  Money raised through Fun Friday activities amounted to more than $5,000 and will be disbursed as scholarships to former CMS students headed to college.  
The scholarships that benefit from Fun Friday are the Robin Thompson Scholarship Fund, named for a 29-year Crest Memorial second-grade teacher who died of cancer in 1995, and the Peg (Ciglinsky) Rowland Scholarship Fund, named for a beloved 20-year fourth-grade teacher who died suddenly in 2012 and served as the Fun Friday coordinator for many years.  
Younger participants, their siblings, and parents enjoyed the event’s carnival held in the cafeteria, where they participated in face painting, skill games, and crafts.  Students in grades 3 to 8, along with their parents, participated in a series of creative relay events in the school’s gym.  Some of these relays include the long-lost arts of skipping and Hula-hooping.  The third- through eighth-graders also completed in
a high-stakes kickball game run by former teacher Dave Raucci, as well as a contest of “Capture the Flag.”
“Fun Friday is the only fundraising event held to support the two scholarship funds,” explained Jeannine Yecco, a teacher at the school who has taken over coordinating duties, “but more importantly it is a fantastic way for teachers, students, and families to spend a lighthearted evening together after nearly a year of hard work.”