Students at Helena Intermediate School recently had a very fine Friday when they arrived to find themselves greeted by superheroes Mr. Incredible (aka Principal Dr. Wayne Williams) and Elasti-Girl (aka Assistant Principal Genet Holcomb).

They were costumed in honor of a fundraiser and contest that pitted them to each raise the most money for the HIS media center/library in conjunction with the fall Book Fair.

It was a tight race, but in the end Mrs. Holcomb won, $110 to $97.

Chairpersons Lisa Hare and Leslie Weidler came up with the eye-catching idea with Lisa Hare creating life-size cardboard cutouts of the competitors to celebrate the book fair theme, “Here’s to Our Heroes.”

Tami Genry, library media specialist, issued a thank-you to parents and students.

“Due to proration, this is our primary funding source and we could not purchase books for our students without our book fair. Despite challenging economic times, this fall’s fair exceeded last year’s fair. We did almost $20,000 in retail sales, raising more than $6,000 for our school media center,” she said. “I am fortunate to have school-wide support, demonstrated by our administration. This was a team effort.”

Hot sellers during the book fair were “Sabotage” by Margaret Haddix, “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk” (a new title by popular children’s author Dav Pilkey) and books from “The Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney. These five books are the journals of the main character, Greg Heffley. Befitting a child’s diary, they are filled with hand-written notes and simple drawings of his daily adventures.

Students also donned a wide assortment of hats to express their support of “Hats Off to Cancer” on Friday, Oct. 1. The proceeds were donated to Children’s Hospital Oncology Department.

This fundraiser was spearheaded by Amy Montgomery, mother of Reilly Montgomery, a fourth grader who was diagnosed with Stage 3 Wilms and had a kidney removed in July. Reilly has completed radiation treatments, but continues chemotherapy.

The Montgomery family has received the support of the community and donations to help reimburse their out-of-pocket medical expenses from the recent “Tell Cancer To Take a Hike” at Oak Mountain State Park.

Laura Brookhart can be reached by e–mail at labro16@yahoo.com.