On Monday, February 4, 2019, Cinnaminson High School had its first-ever Pajama Day that had nothing to do with Spirit Week.

Cinnaminson Student Council joined in with the Cinnaminson Middle School’s Unity Club food drive where it asked students and faculty to each bring a box of cereal into school to provide local impoverished families with breakfast meals through the Food Bank of South Jersey.  Throughout the district, all four school were involved in donating cereal boxes in exchange for wearing PJs to school.

“We got a tremendous amount of cereal, but you always want to find ways to improve and give more to the people who need it the most. Based off the amount of cereal that we got for the first year, we got a great amount and we were very pleased with how it turned out,” says Cinnaminson High School Student Council Advisor and teacher, Mr. Perekupka.

Ms. DeClementi, a Physical Education and Health Teacher at Cinnaminson Middle School, is in charge of the character education initiative for the Cinnaminson School District. One of her first tasks in this position was to address hunger in the Cinnaminson area. Ms. DeClementi began her campaign with the Cinnaminson High School Student Council.

The students and faculty enjoyed both being able to wear their pajamas to school and the idea of making a difference within their community.

Most students say that their favorite part about the event was wearing their pajamas to school. Elizabeth Galvich, a junior at Cinnaminson High School, said that her favorite part about Pajama Day was seeing everyone dressed up in comical onesies.

Mr. Arnold, a Mathematics teacher at Cinnaminson High School, on the other hand, felt great about helping a good cause.

“I think my favorite part about pajama day was just helping out a really great cause. The opportunity to wear pajamas is nice but it’s really all about helping out a good cause in any way that we can. Especially some of us who are in the positions that we are where we can afford certain things and we’re lucky enough to know where our next meal is coming from and know where our next breakfast is. To help those who are really not sure,” Mr. Arnold said.

Additionally, Lisa Ryan  of the Burlington County Times said in her article on February 13, 2019 that “(Ms.) DeClementi said Cinnaminson Middle School school staff, who were in charge of the entire project, lost count of the boxes after 2,500 boxes, and that Unity Club members took about 2,865 pounds of cereal to the Food Bank of South Jersey in Pennsauken, Camden County, during February. District teachers delivered the remaining 350 cereal boxes to the Bread of Life Food Pantry in Palmyra.  In total, according to the Burlington County Times, the district collected approximately 3,000 boxes of cereal.

Considering that there are approximately 2300 students in the district from grades 1-12 and roughly an additional 500 staff, Cinnaminson School District represented itself quite well on February 4.