Wisdom Lane Teachers Mask-Up For A Good Cause

LEVITTOWN, NY — The Wisdom Lane Middle School Builders Club, led by co-advisers Meghan Mastronardi and JoAnn Medina, thought of a creative way to raise funds for the Nassau/Suffolk Autism Society of America during Autism Awareness Month and for the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center. Inspired by the popular television show “The Masked Singer,” the club created a Masked Singer Teacher Edition fundraiser and successfully collected $125 for the NSASA and $225 for the KPTC.

Eleven Wisdom Lane teachers dressed in costume to hide their identities and submitted a video of themselves performing. This included teachers Kathleen Auer, Rina Bronstein, Christina Fitzgibbon, Carole Going, John Lipani, Elizabeth Lynch, Ed Moore, Andrea Mortillaro, Patrick Peace, Kristen Schmidt and Carol Spainer. Each participant also provided clues as to who they might be for students make guesses.

With the help of teachers Chris Letts and Chris Leahy, the videos were edited together and shown to students during their lunch periods. The Wisdom Lane community was encouraged to vote for their favorite masked performer and submit a donation towards the cause using a QR code. The first round resulted in more than 1,700 votes and the final three performers moved on to the next round as the other teachers revealed themselves in a new video.

During the finale, the top three performers – Bald Eagle/Wild Cat, Cool Cow and Happy Hippo, created new video performances to impress the students. This resulted in about 300 votes. Ultimately, Lynch, also known as Happy Hippo, took home the crown with 132 votes. Peace came in second place as the Bald Eagle/Wild Cat and Schmidt was the third place winner as the Cool Cow.