The Gluons Robotics team is hosting a fundraising event this Friday in the Commons where teachers will be taped to poles by students.
Students can donate money during lunch this week to wrap teachers up to the Common’s poles using different amounts of tape depending on how much money they donate, ranging from $1 to wrap a teacher one time around the pillar, up to paying $10 for a whole roll of tape. Students choose which teacher they want to tape, and attempt to have the teacher successfully hanging onto the poles before their lunch period ends.
Senior Anna Hill-Jones, Gluons team captain, brought the idea of taping the teachers to the team a few weeks ago.
“Apparently somebody had done it 10 years ago, and it seemed pretty successful,” Hill-Jones said. “We brought the idea up to the team as a whole and everyone seemed to like it.”
Gluons will be using the money collected from the fundraiser to buy equipment needed for the team’s competitions, as well as creating and distributing airplane launcher stem kits to places such as women’s shelters and homeless shelters.
“Qualifiers is what we are preparing for, and that’ll determine if we can go to State,” Hill-Jones said.
State will be held on Saturday, Feb. 3 at Lafayette.
Lisa Nieder, administrative assistant in the Activities Office, was one of the staff members who worked with Hill-Jones, alongside Principal Dr. Tracy Waeckerle, to bring up the idea of taping the teachers.
“They were looking for a fundraiser, trying to find something that’s not been used so much,” Nieder said. “So we were thinking let’s repurpose a fundraiser that had been so successful before.”
Last year, Gluons hosted a teacher pie-in-the-face fundraiser to raise money for their competitions; however, Neider said the administration didn’t want to repeat the fundraiser due to the excessive mess across the hallways in the commons.
“It was all over our hallways, and it was hard to get cleaned up everywhere,” Nieder said. “So we thought, can we do something that’s just as involved, though not as messy.”
Nieder said having students pay to tape the teachers is a great way to involve faculty and students in promoting school spirit.
“I think it’s great for the student body,” Nieders said. “I think kids really like when they see their teachers having fun, so that’s why it was so successful last time.”
Ed Bolton, science teacher, is one of the participating teachers.
“Anna’s been in my class for three years and has been a lot of fun,” Bolton said. “They’re trying to raise some money to do robotics, and I thought it’d be a great way to support my students.”
Bolton got pied in the face last year, as well as the last time that MHS did taping the teachers.
“Having done both, I would rather be taped to the wall than pied in the face,” Bolton said.
