Teachers began collecting donations from students during their fourth periods for the school-wide Pennies for Patients fundraiser on Tuesday, Feb 15. To reward the campus’ generosity, ASB  holds competitions during Pennies for Patients and other fundraising or school spirit events. Calculus teacher Ms. Barbeau has won every competition this school year, including the recent Pennies for Patients drive in which her class raised a total of $2201.21.

Ms. Barbeau has been storming the campus with her constant success in class competitions. For the past two years, Barbeau and her fourth period have collected the most for the Pennies for Patients donation drive, and she took first place in the holiday door-decorating contest, the food drive, and now Pennies for Patients. It is no surprise that many of the faculty on campus expected a third victory for Barbeau.

“I think that one reason my fourth period has been doing so well in the class competitions this year is that I talk about them daily and really push my students to participate. I guess you can say I have a bit of a competitive streak!” Ms. Barbeau said. “It is a group effort, however, and I try to do my part to help win the competitions. I brought in food for the food drive, worked on the door alongside my students for the door-decorating contest, and pledged to match ten percent of the amount that my class raises for Pennies for Patients.”

Barbeau received food donations from over half of her class during the food drive though she did not offer extra credit; her students also decorated the classroom for the door-decorating contest on their own time after school.

“…there’s no way I would win without the awesome group of students that is in my fourth period class so I have to give them the lion’s share of the credit for our success,” Barbeau said. “Regardless of the outcome of the competition, however, I will be very proud of them for helping to raise money for such a great cause.”

Class competitions are generally only offered to fourth period classes, however, Barbeau receives hefty contributions from all of her classes, not just fourth period Calculus. The fact that her students would forsake their own fourth periods to benefit her class is puzzling to many but perfectly explainable.

“Ms. Barbeau’s passion for helping kids with cancer has led her to give other classes incentives to donate to Pennies for Patients,” senior and student of Barbeau’s fifth period Eugene Vaudry said.

Many teachers were confident that Barbeau’s reign on the school would end. Students had been valiantly rallying up funds for their respective classes in an effort to place first, second, or third and beat out the repeating champion.

“There’s no way she’s going to win. Mr. Bremer’s kids care about kids with cancer,” senior Ryan Ray said about his AP Calculus class.

With donations from such a generous student body, the school is sure to have raised tons of money for Pennies for Patients like they have in the past. Ms. Barbeau failed to disappoint and once again took first place for her third year in a row, but whether or not she had achieved victory this year, Ms. Barbeau was sure to have a reward waiting at the end of the competition—the satisfaction of contributing to a good cause.