SANDPOINT — Sandpoint High School staff may not have thought it through when they provided students with incentives to raise money for this year’s Toys for Tots drive.

The school campaign was organized by Mary Imaz’s student leadership class two weeks before Christmas. Between the Dec. 19 snowstorm, which cancelled school, and the fact that they only collected on “A” days, Imaz said it was quite the feat that the school raised $10,000 in under two weeks.

“It was incredible since we did have a snow day,” Imaz said in an email to the Daily Bee. “... Theoretically, we only had five days.”

But who could blame the students for their enthusiasm with incentives like these:

- At $1,000, the ASB officers each took a pie to the face.

- At $2,000, math teacher Dalton Hawkins ate live mealworms.

- At $3,000, business technology teacher Kevin Hutchens had to eat gum from underneath a desk.

- At $4,000, science teacher Heather Morgan was duct taped to the wall for a lunch.

- At $5,000, English teacher John Search dressed up in duck costume for a day.

- At $6,000, science teacher Mamie Brubaker took a polar swim.

- At $7,000, math teacher Lisa Cessna and English teacher Barbara Crumb dyed their hair red.

- At $8,000, social studies teacher Erica Haynes shaved her eyebrows.

- At $9,000, social studies teacher Conor Baranski got a spray tan.

And when the students reached the $10,000 goal, school administration delivered 87 dozen doughnuts to 2A classes dressed as Santa’s elves. Additionally, the 2A class with the most donated won an ice cream party.

The student leadership class and a committee within the class approached teachers willing to participate, Imaz said. The students thought up some of the ideas, while others were thought up by the teachers themselves.

Imaz said she believes Brubaker had the worst incentive with the icy dip in the lake, but the mealworms were a close second.

“And there were others,” she said in the email. “All of them are extremely brave and crazy … My endless gratitude to all the faculty, staff, administrators, community members, and most of all: the students. I love my/our Sandpoint High School.”

The $10,000 served to help the Sandpoint Lions Club surpass its annual Toys for Tots fundraising goal of $50,000 in December. The Sandpoint Lions Club has run the Toys for Tots program for more than 50 years. The program provides new toys for children from needy families that reside in the Lake Pend Oreille School District. This year, more than 850 children received Christmas gifts, and more than 1,500 people received food for a hearty holiday meal.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.