The month of February was full of school spirit and giving as students and staff worked together to raise money for Easter Seals. The month consisted of a pep assembly, hat days, and flashy neon shirts in order to raise awareness and funds to send students from the ILC program to the Rocky Mountain Easter Seals camp this summer.

This year, Student Leadership made a big jump from raising money for one child through the Make-a-Wish Foundation to raising money for multiple students through Easter Seals. The goal was to raise $20,000, and overall about $13,000 was raised. Although the school didn’t reach that goal, the month was still a success.

“The most successful [event was] probably hat day because we had some middle schools and elementary schools joining forces with us,” Student Leadership advisor Melissa Laferrara said. “T-shirt sales were really successful as well.”

Initially, Student Leadership’s main concern was how unaware students and staff were about what Easter Seals is, since it isn’t as well-known as the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and Laferrara believes this unfamiliarity did, in fact, play a part in not reaching the goal.

“I don’t think it was until the pep assembly that students really understood what [and who] we were raising money for,” she said. “I think, moving forward, it’ll be more successful because students and staff members will have a better understanding of Easter Seals.”

In future years, Student Leadership will be continuing with Miracle Month, keeping the spirit week, hat days, t-shirt sales, and other events, including Swish for a Wish and restaurant nights, only making changes when needed.

“Ideally, next year we want to have a large event each week of Miracle Month,” Laferrara said.

Another aspect that will definitely be continued is the teacher involvement that began as the month progressed. Once certain amounts of money were met, teachers and staff agreed to dye their hair, which helped raise awareness and spark conversations.

“The overwhelming amount of teachers who [agreed to] dye their hair was really exciting,” Laferrara said.

For future years, students should expect to see what they saw this year, with some minor improvements. For example, the hair dyeing will end up starting a lot earlier in the month instead of halfway through and t-shirts will only be available in one color instead of three. The successes of this year will be brought forth to years to come.

“Miracle Month was great. We raised more than we ever really have,” Student Leadership representative Rachel Pacheco said. “For future years, I hope to see it be more of a school event.”

As a result of the money that Miracle Month raised, the school now has the ability to send 15 students around the district, including one from the ILC program at Eaglecrest, to the Rocky Mountain Easter Seals Camp.