NMS Teacher Is ‘Stuck For A Buck’

By Nancy K. Crevier

There was an added layer to the usual hubbub in the Newtown Middle School cafeteria, Friday, March 30, as students took advantage of the opportunity to “stick up” one of their teachers.

From the beginning of the first lunch wave at 10:20 am to the last one at noon, students and staff paid $1 per strip of duct tape to attach NMS technology education instructor Don Ramsey to the wall. “Stuck For A Buck Day” was part of the annual Pennies For Patients drive to support research by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the brainchild of NMS Interact Club and its advisor, Bruce Moulthrop.

Midway through the first lunch wave, Mr Ramsey was already heavily crisscrossed with bright orange and silver duct tape, and a long line of middle school students was lined up to continue layering him with multicolored tape. Working rapidly to keep up with the demand, Mr Moulthrop busily cut long strips of tape and hung them from a rack.

“I found this idea online, to cut the strips ahead of time, because once we get going, it is hard to keep up with the demand,” Mr Moulthrop explained.

Pennies For Patients is always a successful fundraiser at the school, Mr Moulthrop said, but the Interact Club wanted to do something extra this year as an added incentive.

“The Leukemia Society gives you all kinds of ideas, like dunking someone in a tank of water, but a lot of them can be really messy. We saw this idea and thought it would be great,” he said.

Each strip of tape cost $1, he said, but there was no limit to the number of tape strips a student could purchase.

“Hey, Mr Ramsey!” shouted one student walking past the teacher pasted to the wall, “Are you in a sticky situation?”

“Yes,” was the reply, “as a matter of fact, my back is to the wall.”

On Monday, April 2, Mr Moulthrop announced that the Stuck For A Buck event raised $109. Added to the Pennies For Patients three-week campaign, the total raised at NMS came to $1,040.52.

The Stuck For A Buck event could become an annual part of the yearly fundraiser. “Don [Ramsey] held momentarily when we released the platform he was on [after the event], and then slipped down the wall. Who ever becomes our ‘victim’ for next year,” said Mr Moulthrop, “our goal is to have that person adhere to the wall for at least several minutes.”