St. Damian Students Go for a Run with the Principal

St. Damian Principal Colleen Domke and science teacher Andrea Lampasona were waiting for the weather to warm up before fulfilling their end of the deal behind a raffle prize: a nice, little jog with students.

The two set out Tuesday, May 31, keeping pace with five students, headed for Kingsberry Waffle House where a breakfast of pigs in a blanket awaited them after their quarter-mile run.

"We had a hard time believing that anyone was going to pay to run with us, early in the morning," Domke told Patch.

But sixth-grader Matt Jasien took the bait, and bid $70 at the school's annual fashion show fundraiser. Jasien then invited his four friends—Cassidy Burns, Alexandra Tattas, Ed Selman and Tori Galvin—along for the run.

The raffle prize was one of several with low overhead costs suggested by school board members, Lampasona said. Another included Domke visiting a student first thing in the morning for a "principal wake-up call."

Check out the video of Domke, Lampasona and the students on their run, through the finish line—and their winded reactions.