MURILLO – Scott Zamojski isn’t sure he’ll ever kiss a pig again.
But the Crestview Public School principal was happy to do it once, after his students raised more than $900 in support of last month’s annual Terry Fox run.
Zamojski and teacher Sarah Colistro each promised to pucker up and peck the pig if this year’s fundraising total topped $500.
They made it with ease and with the entire student body watching, both educators followed through on their promise.
“It wasn’t as awful as I thought it would be, but I don’t have any plans in the near future of doing it again,” said Zamojski, who got sneezed on by the pig in the process.
“I’d do that and a whole lot more in regards to being able to raise money and send out that message to the school community that we need to pull together for a cause like this and do whatever we can in order to help fight cancer.”
The disease, one of the leading killers in the country, has touched the lives of many students, their families and friends, Zamojski added.
“This is one of those areas we really need to address,” he said.
Teacher Kimberly Veneziale headed up the Terry Fox fundraising efforts at the school, and said when she was younger she witnessed a pig-kissing event that she thought might be incentive enough to get students at the school interested in taking part.
It worked like a charm, she said.
“It gave the students something to really work toward,” Veneziale said. “Because we have such a small student body, it’s rare for us to raise a significant amount of money. We just wanted to see how far we could get this time.
“I couldn’t believe when I saw the amount of money rolling in every day. It just blew my mind.”
For 12-year-old James Pella, it was a chance to do good for the community while enjoying a laugh at the expense of school staff – especially his principal.
“In this school he’s kind of the stereotypical tough guy,” James said. “To see someone like him kiss a pig was really hilarious to watch.”
In the end, the money was the most important part.
“I think even without the pig we would raise that amount of money or even more because the biggest part of this was we were raising money for Terry Fox and we were doing this to help cancer and anybody with it,” he said.
