PICTURED ABOVE: Mrs. Woronicak and students in her Talent and Gifted Class. Students: (front row) Lainey Pollard, Makenna Willey, Ali Enwright, Mya Lazo (back row) Emma Johnston, Precious Kamara, Chase Bannon, Abigail Brault, Brady Fitzpatrick, Alex Morgado, Keaton Lesser.
Walter Hill School in Swedesboro was extremely busy in January this year. Students of the Gifted and Talented Program got together and established a drive to raise money to bring awareness to someone in the local area that was diagnosed with cancer.
United For Healing was the name of the drive, helping to collect funds in supporting a Walter Hill student. Late last fall, Isaac Okungbowa, a G&T student, learned the news that he was diagnosed with leukemia.
The main goal of the fundraiser was the “Quarter Mile of Quarters” challenge, where donations would be collected through quarters, evidently being enough to span a quarter of a mile.
Students and community members of the Swedesboro-Woolwich area donated money for Okungbowa’s cause in droves. In just under two weeks, Walter Hill School had not only met their goal but collected more than what was asked for with the challenge’s goal.
The Story Behind Quarter Mile of Quarters
When the students learned of Okungbowa’s condition, the news took them all by surprise. Kelly Woronicak, a teacher of Walter Hill for over 20 years and lead head of the G&T Program, was also shocked to hear the news.
Okungbowa is known by students like Alexandra Enwright, Lainey Pollard, Keaton Lesser, and Makenna Willey as a close friend and fellow classmate. They said that he was always fun to hang around, always happy and smiling, extremely chill, and always ready to help somebody with school work if they needed.
Willey said that she was brought to tears with Okungbowa’s news. “Hearing about Isaac’s condition brought me down,” she said, adding, “He was a person who’d look at life in the best possible way every single day.”
After the news was received, Pollard began thinking of ways to help Okungbowa. She started researching ideas during Thanksgiving break, finalizing an idea on holding a fundraiser. With a powerpoint presentation, she pitched the idea first to Woronicak, followed by Walter Hill School’s principal, Matt Kelly.
Pollard said her reason for petitioning a fundraiser to the school was that she wanted Okunbowa to know he wasn’t alone. She and her friends wanted to help uplift a fellow student’s spirits and make him happy during treatment.
Woronicak and Kelly were at a loss for words with Pollard’s initiative. “We couldn’t just say no to her,” they both said, adding “we didn’t know how to do it, but we [Walter Hill School] were going to do it!”
After careful consideration, the school settled on the idea of having a quarter drive. To ensure that students would be motivated in participating towards a good cause, Woronicak and Kelly suggested Pollard in setting a measurable goal in collected quarters. In the end, they all decided that the measurement would be a quarter mile of quarters.
To put this into perspective, approximately 16,585 quarters in a straight line is equivalent to a quarter mile.
With a plan established, the G&T students got right to work preparing the drive to kick off. They began making fliers and posters, distributing them across the school to announce the proposed idea. During this time, Enwright, Pollard, Keaton Lesser, Willey, and other G&T students were put in charge of holding an assembly.
January 9 marked the day when the assembly was held. Walter Hill students were informed of what United for Healing was, who it was for, and what the end goal of the whole fundraiser was. Students were challenged to collect as many quarters as possible, and that the school’s 10 homerooms would compete to see who would collect the most quarters to help fund Okungbowa’s recovery.
Pollard and Lesser said that Walter Hill School is an extremely competitive school. They reasoned that the homeroom competition was a pivotal tool in getting students motivated with donations.
The entire drive for Okungbowa’s recovery was completely student-run, with minor assistance from adult supervision, if guidance was ever needed.
Donations were soon being collected between Jan. 12 and Jan. 22. During this time, Franklin Bank in Woolwich played a big role in the school’s goal in collecting quarters. Donations were mainly received through Venmo, and every deposit through Franklin Bank was received in rolls of quarters.
According to Woronicak, Franklin Bank saw several instances of needing to order more quarters due to donations being so large.
All four schools in the district got straight to work collecting quarters. Within the first few days, students and teachers were astounded with how fast donations were flooding in. Donations were also being received from community members throughout the Swedesboro-Woolwich area, adding to the quarter count.
In the cafeteria at the Walter Hill School, there was a giant water jug set out for students to give their donations. Students were constantly going out of their way to give loose change during lunch, which brought joy to the G&T students. Willey said that she’d recall times “when me and my friends would go up to check on the collection jug, the whole cafeteria would burst into cheers for Isaac’s recovery.”
By Jan. 23, all the homerooms’ collected quarters were announced to be counted and lined up. As the students began to line up literal bucket loads of quarters on the ground, G&T students helped measure out a quarter mile (without leaving school grounds) and tally up each classroom’s total collections.
As soon as everything was totaled up, Walter Hill School had surpassed their quarter collection goal. “Our [original] goal was to span a quarter mile with quarters,” said Woronicak, “and we managed to stop at just under four-tenths of a mile!”
Over 27,000 quarters were collected in a little under two weeks, greatly surpassing the originally projected goal of the fundraiser! The number of quarters ended up totaling over $6,800.00.
The G&T students were shocked with how the fundraiser turned out. They all knew that a lot of money had been collected, but they could never have predicted this.
On Jan. 29, Okungbowa and his family were given a check of the fundraisers collected goal. The family was taken back by how much money had been raised, and were extremely grateful for the generosity that Walter Hill School and the greater community of Swedesboro-Woolwich had given them.
According to Woronicak, the drive couldn’t have happened without the hard work and dedication of the G&T students. The students “were my little worker bees,” she said, citing their hard work towards hosting a fundraiser, saying “it wouldn’t have been possible without them.” Students managed to rally support from students and community support of the Swedesboro-Woolwich area, but also tallying up quarter totals once the drive had ended.
Beyond The Fundraiser
In between the events before and leading up to the United For Healing fundraiser, G&T students were in constant communication with Okungbowa. From surprise holiday celebrations to frequent zoom meetings, and even outside help from former Walter Hill students who heard of United for Healing, there was always something happening to uplift Okungbowa’s spirits.
Some students and friends of Okungbowa paid a surprise visit to his home one December night for a special event. They couldn’t meet in person due to him being immune compromised, but that didn’t stop them from singing Christmas Carols in front of his house. Their support had brought a smile to Okungbowa’s face, especially seeing that his friends couldn’t hold a note or agree on what song to sing.
Occasionally Okungbowa would pay his class a visit over zoom to say hi to his friends. Woronicak said there was once a bingo game held through a meeting, with everyone joining in to help uplift their friends’ spirits. Everyone was laughing, smiling, having a good time, and that social event meant the world to him.
The event was so special and memorable, that no matter how hard everyone tried to get Okungbowa to win some games, he still didn’t manage to get a bingo.
Former students of Walter Hill have also made contributions to the United for Healing fundraiser in support of Okungbowa. Charlotte Erikson was one of these former students, who helped collect sympathy cards and donations from students of Kingsway. Cards were recently mailed out to Okungbowa as of writing this back in February.
During the collection period, some individuals expressed their support for Okungbowa’s recovery through art. Enwright took some time to make a sketch of her classmate as a superhero, fighting back against leukemia, with a caption which read “Isaac Strong” in bold letters.
The image had taken a little over a week to make, and once it was done, many students began to sign so it could be sent to Okungbowa.
Enwright’s drawing has been used for a series of t-shirts for students of Walter Hill. “I feel extremely proud of myself for what I made,” said Enwright. “Many students were taken back by my work, all the hard work I put into the drawing, and seeing my art on a t-shirt makes me happy.”
There are currently 300 t-shirts made with Enwright’s art. Currently, these shirts are planned to be handed out to every student in support of Okungbowa’s recovery when he returns to school someday.
When staff and students were questioned if they’d help raise more money for Okungbowa’s treatment if an opportunity arose, they unanimously said yes. Lesser and Willey mentioned that students would not object to the idea, and that raising more money for Isaac or anyone else would be extremely welcome in Walter Hill School.
The students of the G&T program collectively said everything leading up to now has had a big impact on Okungbowa’s life. They add that he is not alone. He has so many friends backing him up, as well as the many people of the Swedesboro-Woolwich community.
If you wish to help support Okungbowa’s recovery, donations are still accepted. By going to Venmo, you can look up Walter Hill’s Sunshine club (@SunshineClubWHS), where you can provide a donation to the school. All donations will go directly towards supporting Okungbowa and his family.
By Gerald Philipp
