Raising Money for Foundation a Fun, Fierce Experience

COLLEGEVILLE PA – Fund-raising Saturday (March 4, 2023) in Collegeville produced a combination of activity that dozens of contestants agreed proved to be so much fun and, simultaneously, so fierce.

The Perkiomen Valley School District Foundation, dedicated to “enhancing and enriching educational opportunities” offered to district students, held its 13th annual Dodgeball Tournament at the high school, 509 Gravel Pike. Over a four-hour period (above and below) it yielded wildly happy and cheering winners, and far more somewhat sedate teams vowing to “come back and do better next year,” as one junior put it.

Actually, all students win as a result of the tourney, the independent, non-profit foundation explains. The money it raises – Saturday’s total has not yet been announced – helps finance programs and projects that could not otherwise be afforded in the district budget. Funds collected are returned to teachers and school buildings in the form of mini-grants.

Grants most recently awarded by foundation directors:

Supported a visual arts library, and also helped create a “Kindness Rock Garden,” both at Schwenksville Elementary School in Schwenksville;
Helped fourth-graders at Evergreen Elementary School in Collegeville participate in the state Fish and Boat Commission’s “Trout in the Classroom” experience, in which they raise trout from eggs to fingerlings and then return them to the Perkiomen Creek;
Paid for a bird walk, and also outdoor recess equipment at PV Middle School West in Zieglerville;
Funded a “Get Your Energy Out” project at the Middle School East in Collegeville; and
Bought whiteboard flip charts, as well as a giant-sized interactive chess set to encourage enthusiasm for the game at the high school.

During the 2021-22 academic year, the foundation said it issued grants with a total value of $72,340.

Trout and chess probably weren’t on the minds of those who slung balls with a vengeance inside the packed high school gym, or who caught them with equal ferocity on the opposite sides of the three courts’ dividing lines. They were too intent on accomplishing the moves described in this year’s tournament theme: dodge, duck, dip, dive, donate.

Tournament business supporters included its presenter, CM3 Building Solutions, and sponsors Fox Rothschild LLP, Levin Legal Group, and Shirt & Ink.

Photos by The Post