This year’s Montauk School Sports Night, on March 15, raised $3,800 for field trips. How did Sports Night became a tradition?
One day in 2002, two of the school’s sixth graders went to the office of the former principal, Jack Perna. They wanted to know if they could go on a trip to the New York Mets game. Mr. Perna said “No.”
The two sixth graders were sad and told their homeroom teacher, Rick White. Mr. White was a Mets fan, too, so he wasn’t so happy when he found out what happened. But he had a plan.
The class had been working on persuasive writing. Mr. White told them that if they would like, they could use their knowledge of persuasive writing to write a note to Mr. Perna and see if they could change his mind. So that’s exactly what they did.
Mr. Perna read the note that said that the sixth grade would do everything to raise the money, and said “yes,” The two sixth graders started to plan — and ended up planning what would become the Montauk School’s annual Sports Night.
They decided that to raise the money they would have the eighth grade compete against the teachers in multiple sport-like events. They did everything they could to have the community come to this new event. They also thought of ways to raise the money, such as charging $5 for admission and selling food and drinks at the event.
It worked! They finally made enough money to go to the Mets game, and, in fact, they made so much money that they could even invite the fifth grade! Their hard work paid off and Montauk School’s Sports Night became a tradition.
By Mackenzie Taylor, 4th Grade