Portsmouth students walk to raise funds for outdoor classroom

All students participate in middle school PTO’s Race for Education

By Jim McGaw
Posted 5/13/19

PORTSMOUTH — Melville School’s got one, and now Portsmouth Middle School wants to be next. 

The school’s PTO hosted a Race for Education Thursday, May 9, to raise …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Portsmouth students walk to raise funds for outdoor classroom

All students participate in middle school PTO’s Race for Education

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — Melville School’s got one, and now Portsmouth Middle School wants to be next. 

The school’s PTO hosted a Race for Education Thursday, May 9, to raise $10,000 to create a new outdoor classroom at the school, as well as for other events and activities sponsored by the organization.

Students in all grade levels walked or jogged around the school as for 45 minutes during the fund-raiser. Along they way, they could stop at various stations set up for other activities.

“We have water stations on both sides,” said Jennifer Collins, PTO president and a parent of a sixth-grader. “We have hula-hooping, we have whiffle ball, bean bag tossing, frisbee. It’s just to keep them engaged if they didn’t want to walk. At some point, every kid is coming out to do some sort of activity.” 

Some members of Every Student Initiative, a group of high school students who advocate for more mental health resources in the schools, also stopped by to assist with the event.

“We needed some volunteers and we thought, who better than a bunch of high school kids who are out there looking to help. And, I think the kids relate well to the high schoolers,” Ms. Collins said.

To give students some incentive for taking part in the fund-raiser, those who collected $25 in sponsor donations were to receive a grab bag prize, and the class from each grade that received the most donations were to be treated to an ice cream party. 

In addition, for every $200 in sponsor donations that a student received, he or she were to be entered into a drawing for a gift card, with one awarded to each grade level. 

The student who collected the most donations will get to be principal for a day. And if the goal of raising $10,000 was reached, Assistant Principal Erin Escher will dye his hair pink.

Donations can still be made at www.race4ed.com/pms. All contributions are tax-deductible.

Early stages

As for the outdoor playground, it’s still in the very early stages of development, she said.

“It’s in the baby stages, so we’re not even sure where we want to place that yet, because they’ve got some big changes coming up in the five-year (school capital) plan,” she said. “But, we want to make a space that every single class can use. Whether it’s band, art, science, English or math, they can come out and utilize the space.”

Portsmouth Middle School

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.