JULIE BERTRAND/Independent reporter
Sixteen Erskine School grade nine students got ready on May 13 to start the school’s annual wake-a-thon.
This year, the students chose to raise money for local charity Animal Haven Rescue. They presented a cheque of $618 to Julie Caron, one of the charity’s coordinators.
‘We’re very glad that you picked us. We thought it was wonderful. We’ll use the money to spay and neuter some new pets that we have right now,” said Caron to the students.
Meanwhile, the students were looking forward to a night filled with activity and as much sugary food as they could stomach.
First, they went paintballing, using funds they raised running a Friday lunch concession.
Then, they came back to have a potluck supper. After supper, one student teacher came up with new games that the students played.
For some students, the highlight was Sneakers, a game in which the students had to get across the village without their parents catching them.
A round of Bigger and Better followed, in which the students started with a little object and went house to house to try to get something bigger than that. They came back to the school with two wrecked lawn mowers, one TV, one truck topper, and one air hockey game.
The student’s plan was for staying awake was fairly simple.
“We’ll eat sugary food to stay awake. We’ll run around and we’ll stay active. We think it will work,” said Carly Armstrong, Erskine School grade nine student.
However, one gap in the schedule had them slightly worried.
“There’s nothing planned between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. We have to come up with something ourselves. It’s going to be tough staying awake,” said Armstrong.
For most students, the wake-a-thon is a great way to celebrate both the end of their time at the Erskine School and the end of middle school.
The wake-a-thon was also a good way to give some deserving Erskine parents a break for one night.