Bennett College threw a pizza party last week for 18 first-graders at Erwin Montessori at Alamance Elementary School who donated $115 in quarters to the #StandWithBennett campaign.
The national campaign to keep the Greensboro college open began on Dec. 11, 2018, and raised about $9.5 million over 55 days.
The pizza party began with a “moving up” ceremony to celebrate the student’s promotion to second grade.
(The students were taught by Karen Wallace and her assistant, Diana Liinangi.)
Bennett President Dr. Phyllis Worthy Dawkins encouraged the students to believe in themselves.
“I grew up in the projects, in public housing in Asheville,” Dawkins said. “One day when I was in the fourth grade, one of my adult cousins said to me, ‘you’re gonna be somebody someday.’ That set a vision in my head.”
In addition to pizza, the children also were given StandWithBennett T-shirts.
The pizza they ate came from Papa John’s, which established a relationship with Bennett after The Papa John’s Foundation donated $500,000 to the #StandWithBennett campaign.