The Penn-Trafford School District participated in Macy’s “National Believe Week”, which raises funds for the Make-A-Wish foundation for every letter to Santa collected. Penn-Trafford’s letter-writing campaign was spearheaded by Meghan Coleman (Second Grade teacher at McCullough Elementary) and Christa Cerutti (First Grade teacher at Sunrise Estates Elementary).
Some schools in the district held events where students could write letters. One such event, held at Sunrise, was called “Letters by the Fire” and encouraged students to write as many letters as they could in 30 minutes. Sunrise staff members Miss Gordon and Miss Castaldo created a cozy environment with a “fire” and Christmas music, and students were permitted to wear their pajamas to school that day. After writing letters and dropping them in the mailbox, students were able to take pictures in the holiday photo booth. The students helped to collect additional letters by having family members write to Santa, too.
All of the district’s schools got involved in the letter-writing campaign. One high school student - 11th-grader Hannah Tickerhoof - wrote 2,000 letters all by herself.
On December 3rd, Mrs. Cerutti and Mrs. Coleman delivered 20,200 letters to Macy’s during National Believe Week. For letters delivered during this week, Make-A-Wish® received $2 for every letter instead of $1. Penn-Trafford’s efforts raised $40,400.
It takes approximately $4,400 to grant one wish. This means that Penn Trafford raised enough money to grant 9.1 wishes this year through Santa Letter Writing.