Students in several local school districts spent the days leading up to their holiday break putting the finishing touches on telethons and other activities that raised money for the Make-A-Wish foundation.
Television production and National Honor Society students at Plum High School put on the district's eighth annual Make-A-Wish telethon, which raised $46,105. Plum students were trying to beat last year's total of more than $47,000.
Fox Chapel Area High School's 18th annual telethon, with the theme "Got Wishes?," was held in memory of two Fox Chapel Area students who received wishes from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The campaign raised $14,912.
And North Hills High School raised more than $300 for Make-A-Wish through its gingerbread house contest.
"It's so wonderful to see students fundraising and helping children," said Dana Antkowiak, spokeswoman for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Pennsylvania and Southern West Virginia. "We hear that children are blase. It's great to see these kids put so much energy into fundraising. We're proud of them."
Make-A-Wish grants wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. In the local organization's 24-year history, it has granted wishes to more than 9,000 youths from Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Sarah Scott, 11, of Pitcairn stopped by last week's telethon at Plum. She was diagnosed at age 4 with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder of the nervous system that causes tumors to grow on nerves. She loves to fish and last year received a pontoon for her Make-A-Wish gift.
"A fishing boat only holds two people," said Scott, a fifth-grader at Moss Side Middle School in the Gateway School District. "I saw pontoons online and thought it would be perfect. All my friends could go on it."
She christened the pontoon "Sarah's Wish," and the name is painted on the side of the vessel.
The Plum School District has raised about $485,000 for Make-A-Wish through the past eight telethons. The money comes from fundraisers at each district school as well as pledges phoned in during the telethon.
Plum area residents can see the telethon on cable Channel 23 during the holiday break.
Fox Chapel Area High School's telethon was in honor of Joe Thalimer, 17, who died May 28 from leukemia, and Joe Clark, 15, who died Aug. 26, 2005, from Ewing's sarcoma, a disease in which cancer cells are found in the bone or in soft tissue.
Jill Tabis, marketing teacher at Fox Chapel and coordinator of the telethon, said the event, which is put on by students in the television production and marketing management program, fosters a "certain kind of energy in the building."
Tabis said over the past month the students coordinated different fundraisers, including a Guitar Hero contest and a rubber duck race in the high school swimming pool.
Fox Chapel Area has donated nearly $380,000 through the annual telethons during the past 18 years.
Comcast cable customers in Aspinwall, Fox Chapel, Sharpsburg and part of O'Hara will be able to see the telethon rebroadcast from 4 to 6 p.m. every day through Jan. 1 on Channel 98.
The North Hills School District has raised nearly $163,000 since 1994.
Earlier this month, Michelle Medic's 72 gourmet food students started building gingerbread houses. The young chefs built everything from a "Three Little Pigs" home to a skyscraper with King Kong climbing up it.
The houses were on display last week, and students spent 50 cents per vote on their favorite house.
"They really get into it," Medic said. "There's a lot of hype around gingerbread houses this year. They realize there's a lot of work that goes into it."
One gingerbread house was so large it had to be moved using a piece of drywall, Medic said.
"What's nice is they use their math skills to fit (the house) together," Medic said. "They use creativity to think of a variety of things to make it look cute. And, after all is said and done, they've got a nice product and they've done a bit to help others out."
The local chapter of Make-A-Wish was started in 1983 and has granted nearly 10,000 wishes to date.
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