First-grade student Selena Matagi and mother, Jamie Matagi, celebrate the items Selena sold for a PTA fundraiser Tuesday evning in Chehalis.
More than 100 Chehalis elementary school students partied with Blitz — mascot of the Seattle Seahawks — at a football-themed carnival Tuesday evening, organized by the Chehalis Parent Teacher Association.
As part of a fundraiser for the PTA last fall, K-2 students from James W. Lintott Elementary School and third-grade students from Cascade Elementary School — next year those third- grade students will be housed in Orin Smith Elementary School — sold cookie dough and home good items from a catalog.
“They did cookie dough sales and it had gift wrapping, all sorts of fun things,” said Tanya Olson, volunteer coordinator for the PTA. “They were required to sell 12 items in order to come to the Blitz party and Blitz came, and we are doing all sorts of fun things.”
In total, there were 135 students who sold at least 12 items. Those students and their families were invited to attend the party Tuesday at Lintott Elementary.
“They can have a photo with Blitz, and then we also have popcorn, cotton candy and water,” said Brook Mueller, president of the PTA. “Then Tanya and Shannon made stations of carnival kind of football games in the gym. So we have high schoolers coming in and doing their community service time and playing with the kids. I think there’s prizes that they can win, just to kind of kill some time until Blitz can sign autographs.”
Third-grade student Addi Olson, Tanya’s Olson’s daughter, was the top seller at Cascade. She sold 66 orders of cookie dough.
“My family and friends bought a whole bunch just to support me on it, and we posted it on Facebook,” Addi Olson said. “... I got prizes for selling a lot of the stuff.”
Her advice for students selling cookie dough next year was to not only ask the people they know, but anyone who will listen to the pitch.
“Then ask other people that you, like, kind of know or friends and family and people at the school, like the staff and stuff,” Addi Olson said. “That’s it.”
First-grade student Selena Matagi attended the carnival with her mother, Jamie Matagi. She said she liked the carnival, and had already gotten green cotton candy. She’s a Seahawks fan and had her picture taken with Blitz.
“We already did that,” said Selena Matagi, when asked if she planned to get a photo. “We did that at the beginning, because Mom didn’t want to wait in line.”
Jamie Matagi said she and her daughter mostly sold items to friends and family.
“I’ve had five children that have gone through this school district, and they have never done anything like this,” Jamie Matagi said. “It’s a good motivator.”
The PTA does things like pay for field trips and extra buses. While Tanya Olson didn’t know the grand total students raised yet, she said the PTA will most likely hold the same fundraiser again next year.
“We don’t have the grand total yet from all of it, but it was a lot,” Tanya Olson said. “They did a really good job. They asked everybody that they knew which was awesome. … Then it gives us the ability to give back to the schools, so they can do field trips and all the extra things they get to do that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do.”
