Many Upper School students look back fondly at the days of long skirts, nights with time for T.V., excessive pool parties and Mrs. O’Connor’s infamous “farty far.”  If you haven’t already guessed, I’m referring to the carefree and summer camp-like days of 7th grade.

A great thing about 7th graders, besides of course their rolling backpacks and tendency to sing Justin Bieber loudly in the halls, is their participation in the annual Math-A-Thon.  Last November, 33 7th grade students participated, raising a total of $2,217.86 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. According to St. Jude’s, this amount will pay for three days of chemotherapy for one child. Students complete a “Fun Book” of math problems and then ask for sponsorship from parents, grandparents or friends for donations to the hospital.

Lauren ’16 said she wanted to participate but didn’t have enough time to actually do all the math problems.

“I donated money. I just wasn’t able to participate in the actual Math-A-Thon,” she said.  Although two thousand dollars is a lot of money, this number was considerably less compared to earlier years.  Mathematics instructor Sandra O’Connor said that in past years the 7th graders managed to raise six to eight thousand.

According to mathematics instructor Jennifer Uribe, the teachers’ goal was that everyone would participate and each student would raise at least $35.

“It’s not meant to be yet another thing the 7th graders felt they had to do.  We hoped that we would raise more money, but Mrs. O’Connor and I are still happy to be able to send what we raised,” Uribe said.