Margaret Brent Elementary Students Met Fundraising Goal, so Principals Camped Out at School Overnight
To the delight of everyone, the administrative team lost the annual fundraising challenge.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Students at Margaret Brent Elementary School in Stafford had been told that their principal and assistant principal were going to camp out at the school all night.
Still, they were a little shocked—and excited—when they drove by the school with their families at 8 p.m. last Thursday to find Mr. [Scott] Elchenko and Ms. [Catherine] Lamcyzk cooking s’mores over a propane stove in front of tents they’d pitched on the school grounds.
“Even today [almost a week later], they’re coming up and saying, ‘I saw you sleeping out there!’” Lamcyzk told the Advance.
The campout was the result of a challenge that the Margaret Brent administrative team issued to the student body to raise $30,000 during the spring Boosterthon Fun Run.
“The Fun Run has been part of Margaret Brent for 14 years and typically every year there is some sort of challenge given to the students,” Elchenko said. “Last year, I offered to kiss a pig if they met their goal. [They did, and he did.] This year, we decided we would camp out if they met their goal.”
The students not only met the challenge but exceeded it, raising a total of $61,000 for their school.
The administrative team staged a number of events to get the students excited in the days leading up to the campout, which took place from Thursday to Friday, April 24-25.
They shared their plans to cook s’mores, and Lamcyzk, who describes herself as “not a camper,” declared her fear of insects to the students and made a sign reading “No bugs and no spiders allowed” to post outside her tent.
“The kids got a really big kick out of that—they wanted to see if she was going to have any spiders coming to get her in the evening,” Elchenko said.
The principals invited families to drive by the school between 7 and 8 p.m. to see if they would actually be there. Students made motivational signs, some of them warning spiders to stay away.
“The kids were very concerned and wanted to make sure [Ms. Lamcyzk) would be OK,” Elchenko said. “It was very sweet.”
Elchenko and Lamcyzk filmed a video of their adventures in the school overnight—and none of it was staged. They played hide-and-seek, they accidentally set off a fire alarm, they visited the playground at midnight and surprised themselves at how close the bottom of the slide was to the ground.
“Everything you see in the video was not rehearsed—it was the first take,” Elchenko said.
On Friday morning, students gathered outside the principals’ tents and “woke them up,” screaming with excitement when Lamcyzk and Elchenko emerged wearing pajamas.
“The students really thought they woke us up, and we’ll let them keep that magic,” Lamcyzk said.
Lamcyzk has been assistant principal at Margaret Brent for 13 years and Elchenko has also worked for Stafford County Schools for 13 years. He’s in his second year as principal of Margaret Brent. Both administrators said the sense of community is what has kept them in Stafford.
“At the same time, [Stafford is] also home for both of us,” Elchenko said. “We enjoy teaching and leading where we both also live as well.”
Elchenko said he and Lamcyzk stay motivated by the core belief that “we’re here for the kids and we know that we want to give them the best experience possible.”
“That means a good education and safe environment, but it also means connecting with kids on just a kid level,” he said. “That keeps me motivated. We make sure we always have time to be authentic and be real with them, so they don’t see us as the principal and the assistant principal, but also as people. They see the serious side to us, but also that we work hard and play hard, too.”
Elchenko said the school will use the $61,000 raised during the Boosterthon to replace 15 smartboards and give each teacher $500 to spend on classroom supplies.
He said he’s glad to have been able to give the students such a fun experience during the “high stress” end-of-year spate of SOL testing.
“The pure excitement that you saw in the kids’ faces when they were outside [to wake us up] was just real,” he said.
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