Round Lake students raise $5,000, assistant principal kisses a pig

This little piggy went to Magee Middle School.

And helped raise $5,000.

Students at John T. Magee Middle School in Round Lake raised the money earlier this month for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and were rewarded with a pep rally where Assistant Principal Jason Cummins kissed a pig on the nose.

All 625 students at the rally broke out in laugher as Cummins worked the crowd by pulling out a CPR mask and lip gloss before kissing the squealing 6-week-old hog. "His nose was cold and slimy. I was afraid he'd bite my nose," said Cummins, adding this was the first time he kissed a pig. Stephanie Girod, a seventh-grade math teacher, also kissed the baby hog from Linneman Farm in Sycaomore.

Students and staff at the middle school raised the money in a math-a-thon fundraiser, sponsored by math teacher Curt Rupert, that quickly grew by word-of-mouth to bus drivers and district employees.

Principal Eric Gallagher and Rupert pledged to shave their heads, but Gallagher during the rally requested a mohawk.

"I kept it for one day and took my family out to dinner and received many strange looks," Gallagher said.

Rupert said he chose St. Judes because he wanted to teach students the value of helping other kids and likes their philosophy of assisting anyone who comes to them for help.

Students Manuel Ocana, Zainab Jivanjee, Rachel White and Jenifer Cuellar raised the most amount of money during the math-a-thon.

"We have had so much excitement over the event that the secretaries and bus drivers have already started collecting for next year," Gallagher said.