Blanche Sims Elementary students exceed fundraising goal – Principal Nuss hits the roof

Blanche Sims Elementary students may have had their annual Fun Run fundraiser on Oct. 4, but the fun continued for 20 more days.

The students raised a record $18,000 for the school’s PTO. If they reached their $15,000 goal, Principal Ken Nuss said he would reward the students by sleeping on the roof of the school, which he did on Thursday.

“Last year we had the goal of $15,000 for our Fun Run fundraiser and Mr. Nuss agreed to sleep on the roof but we didn’t make our goal,” Blanche Sims PTO President Erica Lentz said. “So, we offered it up again this year and the kids turned out big time and we surpassed our goal.”

Oh, the anticipation.

“The kids are so excited that Mr. Nuss is going to stay on the roof,” Lentz said. “We really had no idea how many kids would come and we had a record number of kids that showed up, so we’re so excited.”

Hundreds of Blanche Sims students and their parents showed up on Oct. 24, playing games, running around the playground and watching as their principal took to the roof of the school, a tent, camp chair and lantern his home comforts for the evening.

Nuss threw marshmallows from the roof down to the students below and then tossed down soft, spongy balls – which the kids promptly fired right back at him.

At the end of the evening, Nuss treated the kids to a bedtime story, reading If You Give a Mouse an iPhone by Ann Droyd.

As the kids went home to their cozy beds, Nuss slept on the roof of the building until 8:45 a.m. Friday, when school began.

Blanche Sims’ PTO, like many of Lake Orion’s PTO programs, helps raise funds for a variety of activities at the schools, in and out of the classroom. The Fun Run is the school’s largest fundraiser of the year, Lentz said.

“The money will go toward classroom supplies, field trip transportation, in-school assemblies, etc., for the year,” Lentz said. “The money we raised is held by the PTO and teachers submit budget requests for their classrooms and we grant those and pay out the expenses.” – By Jim Newell