Winning class in charity drive gets pizza

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Watsessing Elementary School fourth-graders of Rachel Mazetta celebrated with a pizza party on Friday, April 7.

The occasion was for being the class to raise the most money in school for the Valerie Fund. Mazetta’s students raised $142 by dropping coins into a piggy bank. The school, altogether, collected $549.

The charity was an expansion of an idea resident Milly Williams began last year with Fairview Elementary where her daughter Jordan was a second-grader. What had prompted the Fairview effort was that Jordan had been diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia in February 2015. For the last two years, Fairview has raised money for the Fighting Children’s Cancer Foundation, the organization that helped to support the Williams family while Jordan was undergoing treatment.

Jordan was the guest of honor at the Watsessing party. She introduced herself, thanked the class, answered questions, and had a slice of pie.

She was asked how long had she had cancer and her favorite subjects in school.
“Why do you do this,” one student asked about the fundraisers.
Jordan answered by saying that some kids don’t make it through their first year with cancer.

“They pass away and go to heaven,” she said.
This year, Bloomfield High School, and the middle school, joined Fairview and Watsessing in fundraising. Fairview raised over $1,200 with Jordan’s homeroom earning the pizza party for topping all classes with $336 collected.