Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Sunday, April 06, 2008
Curtsying for a cure
 Lewiston-Altura Elementary Teacher, Scott Schmaltz, hitches up the skirt on his wedding dress as he walks through the computer lab Friday checking his students' progress. Schmaltz agreed to wear the dress as a reward for Lewiston-Altura students exceeding their fundraising goal for the Fool's Five Road Race. He will be wearing the dress as race manager during the Fool's Five race Sunday in Lewiston. (Photo by Melissa Carlo/Winona Daily News) |
LEWISTON, Minn. — On a normal day, they call him Mr. Schmaltz.
Friday wasn’t a normal day — not for Lewiston-Altura Elementary teacher Scott Schmaltz or his class.
Friday, Schmaltz wore a wedding dress to school — veil and all. He’ll wear it all weekend to help support the 30th Annual Fool’s Five 8-kilometer road race, which takes place at 1 p.m. Sunday in Lewiston.
For six years Schmaltz has embarrassed himself — though he’s not embarrassed — for the sake of cancer awareness.
Each year he challenges the L-A Elementary students to raise $6,000. If they do — and they have every year — they get to dress him up in whatever they want. Schmaltz must wear the attire all weekend, including race day.
Schmaltz has run the 8k in a dress, a bikini, a Minnesota Vikings jersey (with helmet and tutu) — he’s a Green Bay Packers fan. He’s been Wonder Woman, Larry the Cable Guy, and now, the bride — a hideous bride.
“He gets kind of weird every year when it comes to the Fool’s Five,” third grader Kenzie Sullivan said of her teacher. “He likes to be the fool. We’ve been calling him Manderella or Mrs. Schmaltz today.”
Over the six years, the elementary school has raised more than $40,000 for the Fool’s Five.
“I don’t get too embarrassed,” Schmaltz said. “The money we’ve raised is enough right there to keep me going.“
Schmaltz wore the wedding dress all day in the classroom. He wore it Friday night at the auction, where he stood on the roof and asked for donations. He’ll wear it all weekend, including Sunday’s race, though he won’t be running this year, because he’s coordinating.
“I told some people that I would lose some pounds and start tanning so I could look good,” Schmaltz said.
No amount of weight loss or tanning would have helped. It wouldn’t matter what Schmaltz wore. He’s raising money for a great cause, and he’s going to look good in anything because of it.
“He looks weird,” third grader Cody Rein said of his teacher. “Everyone has been laughing at him. He said he’s going to be crazy all weekend.”
Schmaltz got started raising money for the race one year after Gary Mills retired from the elementary school. Mills is the founder of the Fool’s Five, which started on April Fool’s day in 1979.
“When he retired from teaching, the money that came in from the kids was down,” Schmaltz said. “I just felt like we needed to do something to boost the donations.”
Mills couldn’t be happier someone took the torch.
“I’m glad someone young wants to keep it going and keep getting the kids to go out,” Mills said.
Raising awareness became even more important to Schmaltz about a year and a half ago when his 5-year-old nephew Jackson Schneider was diagnosed with Neural Blastoma.
“It’s a rare kids’ cancer,” Schmaltz said. “He was diagnosed in stage four of four. He battled for a year and survived.
“Now he’s flourishing. He’s cancer free and as active as any other 7 year old would be.”
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