Weehawken Students Win $1,000 and Give to Special Olympics NJ

Weehawken Students Win $1,000 and Give to Special Olympics

NJ.com, 16-Apr-15

By Laura Herzog

Weehawken High School's basic technology teacher Laura Sciortino has been volunteering for the Special Olympics since she was a teenager, "all the way back in '89," she said.

So, to her, it was especially heartwarming to see her students receiving a $1,000 check on Wednesday from a Cablevision charity program - only to present it to a board member from the Special Olympics of New Jersey.

The students were all in the Weehawken High School Peer Leadership club that Sciortino has advised for 13 years.

The Special Olympics is "just something that I always felt close to. It was part of my church," she said. "There's this unity there."

The money comes through Cablevision's Optimum Community initiative Charity Champions, which "promotes volunteerism and encourages high schools to raise funds for a charity of their choice," according to a press release.

This is the second year that the students have won money from Cablevison's now six-year-old program, formerly called "Power to Learn," the release stated. Selected schools receive $500 "in seed money" to put towards future fundraising efforts, in addition to a $1,000 donation to their charity of choice.

Based on their annual fundraising efforts, which are submitted to Cablevision in April, a school will be chosen for a grand prize winner in each of the six tri-state regions to receive an additional $5,000 for their charity, according to Cablevision.

Besides independently raising $800 this year for the Special Olympics prior to receiving this check, Weehawken students in the peer leaders club are learning about learning about cooperation and teamwork, Sciortino said.

But most importantly, she said, the students pledge to stay off drugs and alcohol.

Making "a difference in the community makes them busy, so that they're not going to be involved with drugs and alcohol," Sciortino said.