Riverhead Middle School students celebrated Pi Day on Thursday by splattering their teachers and administrators with whipped cream.
The seventh and eighth graders hurled plates of whipped cream — “pies” — at school faculty and administrators. Students purchased the “pies” from the Riverhead Middle School Parent Teachers Organization, who use the event as an annual fundraiser.
Those being pied tried to protect their clothes, hair and eyes by covering themselves in garbage bags and plastic, which had them looking like the Met Gala’s weirdest attendees. Many kids missed the teachers and caused whipped cream to splatter beyond the area of the gymnasium protected by plastic. (This reporter, thankfully, survived the perils of the splash zone.)
A total of 170 students purchased 470 pies, generating $804 for the PTO, middle school principal Joseph Pesqueira said.
“This event brings out the best in our learning community. Staff members willing to go above and beyond, the parent teacher organization supporting us by providing the necessary materials, and the students who bring out their biggest smiles and laughs,” Pesqueira said. “It is a testament to the type of students that we have to be able to have 170 students throwing pies at their teachers and still maintaining a respectful and safe environment.”
“We, as a society, sometimes overlook the importance of social-emotional learning and support,” he said. “Feel-good, fun events like this allow everyone to just take a moment to smile and have a good time!”
Pi Day is celebrated on March 14, whose numeric form matches the first three figures of the well known mathematical constant. It is typically celebrated by eating Pi’s homonym, pie. The earliest known large-scale Pi Day celebration occurred in 1988 during a retreat for staff members of the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, according to CBS News. The holiday was nationally recognized with a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 12, 2009.
RiverheadLOCAL photos and video by Alek Lewis
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