Paying it Forward with Sweetness
Orchard Valley, Chestnut Ridge FutureActs Students Gather to Make “Colettezels” to Culminate Fundraising Activity
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – When Nancee Bleistine brought colorfully decorated, chocolate-covered pretzels to sell at the annual Helping Hands Super Bowl Hoagie sale, it spawned an idea that came fully to fruition on Monday, May 7, 2018.
Orchard Valley Middle School FutureActs advisor Maddy La Voe saw the popularity of the pretzels and a connection to service. The treats, dark and milk chocolate dipped pretzels drizzled in white and pink melted chocolate, are known as “Colettezels.” They get their name from Bleistine’s daughter, Colette, who used to make them all the time as a treat and later started a business selling them, donating portions of her sales to charity. Colette Bleistine passed away from cystic fibrosis in 2012 at the age of 22, and her family started the Colette W. Bleistine Pay it Forward Foundation.
La Voe put all of that together and decided she wanted the FutureActs clubs to hold a Colettezels fundraiser. And over the past month, small (five pretzels) and large (10 pretzels) orders of the treats have been sold throughout the District. On Monday, the students gathered to make and box the Colettezels. An amazing 320-plus orders were taken.
“When Maddy first thought of the idea, we were thinking we’d be making 200 or 300 Colettezels,” Nancee Bleistine said on Monday inside the CRMS cafeteria. “But here we are, making 2,500. It’s been such an overwhelming response. Colette would be so excited to see what these kids are doing.”
All of the proceeds from the event will benefit the Pay it Forward Foundation, which supports the Washington Township community by offering scholarships to Washington Township High School seniors who have a passion for community service, assisting band members in need of financial assistance for trips and/or band camps, and supporting the Helping Hands Hoagie Sale, which provides financial assistance to members of the Washington Township community who are suffering from serious medical conditions.
Nancee and her husband, George, volunteered their time to help the students make the Colettezels on Monday, alongside advisors La Voe and Kim Hinrichs.
“We’re just very blessed. The Washington Township School District is so giving, and we’re so thankful that the superintendent gave the OK to do all this here today,” Nancee Bleistine said. “The kids are doing a great job. It’s really a special, special thing they’re all doing.”
Once all the Colettezels were decorated and packaged, they were to be delivered to individual schools for pickup on Tuesday, May 8th.
“We could not believe we sold this many orders in the first year of this fundraiser,” La Voe said. “It’s been amazing. We even had one fifth-grader at Hurffville, Brooklynn Greenwood, take it upon herself to sell 26 boxes. I mean, that’s just unbelievable.”
Please click here for more photos from the event.
- WTPS -