Ephrata HS fundraiser finishes with llama kiss

EPHRATA - Frankie did not look like a guy who was guaranteed a kiss from a pretty girl. He hesitated. In fact he dug in his heels, and wouldn't move even when one of his entourage got behind him and pushed.

In Frankie's defense he's a llama, and he had a whole room full of Ephrata High School students waiting to see him kiss math teacher Michele Ramirez - or rather, to see Mrs. Ramirez kiss Frankie. It was part of the payoff for two weeks of raising money to buy gifts for their fellow teens for Christmas.

As far as Michele Ramirez was concerned, it wasn't that bad. "I've had worse kisses," she said.

This is the seventh year Ephrata students have sponsored the "Toys for Teens" fundraising competition, ASB advisor Kathleen Allstot said. It grew out of a fundraiser that raised a couple thousand dollars.

The leadership class was running it, and the idea was to use the money to buy Christmas stuff for one family, Allstot said. But that almost seemed like too much for one family, so the kids decided to spread some of the money around, she said.

The revised fundraiser was inspired by a fact of life, that most adults have little to no idea what to give teens. Sometimes not even teens know exactly what to give other teens, Matt Mortimer, who's an ASB officer, said. The ASB crew takes the money raised and goes off to the Ephrata Walmart, and "it's a challenge for us every time we go through," Mortimer said.

"We get all the gifts we possibly can," ASB officer Freddie Ham said. They try to spend about $20 per kid, half of the gifts for girls and half for boys, Mortimer said.

("The kids that go shopping have more fun, picking out things they think other teens would like," Allstot said. The kids put some work into their choices, she said. "Very thoughtful and generous.") The toys are donated to and distributed by the Ephrata Food Bank.

For the record, Ham said electronics are always winners, and so are what she called hygiene products and Mortmier called "makeupy stuff." Clothes work too, Ham said. "Stick with those and you can't really go wrong," she said.

Toys for Teens 2013 raised $4,419, Allstot said. "It's up to the kids to find the money," she said. "Whether they get it from Grandma and Grandpa or the seats in their own pickup truck, we don't care."

"They (the students) save their coins all year," Ramirez said. "As do the teachers. The teachers get just as involved."

There are competitions; freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors fight it out in the first week. In the second week the ASB chooses a class period (this year it was third period) and pits classes against each other.

Teachers were offering prizes for donations - T-shirts, doughnuts, candy, Ramirez said. The class that raises the most money per capita is the winner.

The overall winner was Marcy Evenson's class, which raised $704.10. But David Mayhugh's class had the highest per capita, raising $701.35, $58.45 per capita.

Now, both Mrs. Evenson's class and Mr. Mayhugh's class will get some pizza, courtesy of the ASB. But any good contest has a prize worth winning at the end, something fun, maybe a little quirky. And every year at least one teacher is selected to do something, maybe even something undignified. In 2012 a teacher did the dunk tank - and it didn't happen on a nice hot day in July, it was in December.

In 2013 the ASB came up with idea the of kissing something, maybe even a farm animal. Frankie lives on the school farm and is owned by the school district. The idea of kissing a llama had a certain appeal.

"I'm not sure why we own a llama," Allstot said. "I guess because it's interesting." Actually it's because somebody donated him, said Alex Larson, who's in the FFA and was part of Frankie's entourage. Also "it's supposed to be protecting our sheep." FFA member Matthew Meulman said.

The winning class had their choice of six teachers who volunteered to be possible llama kissers. Mayhugh's class chose Ramirez.

"I tried to go meet Frankie yesterday. But Frankie would have none of it," Ramirez said. And he was not very gallant when he got to school. He hesitated, and even pushing him didn't work, and his entourage had to tempt him with some grain.

But in the end he walked to the cafeteria and stood still for a kiss. In fact Ramirez kissed him twice, since so many kids missed the picture the first time.

So will Mr. Mayhew perhaps face some payback from Mrs. Ramirez, somewhere down the line? "Oh, dude. Dude. It is on for next year."