Liberty Classical Academy has been pulling off some pretty wacky, laugh-out-loud stunts to help embolden student participation in an annual fundraiser this year.

Students of the private New Castle religious school have so far spent November trying to raise enough funds to provide at least 10,000 nutritionally-balanced meals for a Haitian orphanage.

“We are helping people who don’t have enough money to get enough food and water,” said Emalise Mollman, a 9-year-old Liberty Classical student. 

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The annual fundraiser, now in its second year, is called Feed the Need, with funds also going toward making school improvements.

After the money is raised, Liberty Classical students get together Dec. 2 to pack the meals, school representative Christina Still said.

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“It’s really amazing,” she said. “I think it’s really wonderful for the kids to help other people that are in need, and we’re able to get together as a family.”

To reach its ultimate fundraising goal of $40,000, Liberty Classical Academy teachers and staff have agreed to do things they wouldn’t normally do. These stunts are in reward for students notching big gains toward the goal.

For instance, teacher Crystal Garrison agreed to kiss a goat. She in fact kissed a goat before students on Tuesday morning.

“I think it was kind of a little weird,” Zoey Mollman, 7, said of the kiss. Zoey is Emalise’s little sister.

Liberty Classical Head of School Renee Miller said she had to stand on a cold rooftop for an entire day last year in exchange for the students reaching 100% of their goal. 

Miller also said they held an outdoor dunk tank that November to reward the students. It’s no surprise, Liberty Classical students raised $30,000 in 2021.

Next week, students get to wear hats all day because they now have already reached 50% of the school goal.

“We have a lovely community that is very family oriented and also very service and mission oriented,” Miller said. “This is a beautifully mission-aligned fundraising event for us.”

What’s really a point of emphasis for Liberty Classical is not just the student participation but the family participation.

One family representing four generations helped sponsor the event and pack meals in 2021. This is the story of the Mollman sisters. 

Their great grandfather, Jim Brunner, 88, was in town visiting from Tucson, Arizona when helped pack sacks of rice, he said.

Joining them were also the girls’ grandmother, Ruth Mollman, 65, and the girls’ father, Jonathan Mollman, 37.  

“It tells me they all care and they want to be a help when they can,” Brunner said of his family. “I’m very proud of them.”

Ruth Mollman said everything about this experience was the best part.

“We had my dad here, we had the little ones there that go to the school, I had my son, I was there, and we’re helping people that were in need,” she said. “It was a great experience, plus we were able to educate (Emalise) and Zoey as to why we were filling sacks.”

The Mollmans and great grandpa Jim ended up packing more than 150 meals, with each family member responsible for stocking different parts of the meal.

“It definitely gives you pride in that you can have multiple generations in your family working together for a benefit to someone else, unselfishly, rather than just you and your kid doing it,” Jonathan Mollman said. “It just shows good heritage.”

For more information on Liberty Classical Academy’s fundraising efforts this year, visit https://p2p.onecause.com/lca 

Funds raised as of Tuesday reached more than $25,000 and counting. The effort has received 140 donations, with another 53 families registered.

As for teachers kissing goats for a good cause, Emalise joked that it was “still pretty gross.”

“That goat had food all over its mouth,” she said.