Principal puckers up for diabetes

AVELLA – Daisy rolled on her side in the grass, getting a belly rub as she waited for her big smooch.
Inside, Avella Area Elementary students were chanting: “Kiss the pig! Kiss the pig!”
They knew what was coming.
Their principal made a promise. And the time had come for him to pay the piper.
Principal Joel Kirsch promised that if students raised at least $2,000 for diabetes research, he would kiss a big pig.
They raised $5,900. It’s an issue that hits close to home because three students in the school have diabetes, Kirsch said.
“You guys really came through,” he told them before Daisy was brought into the school.
He said he was assured that she was nice so he wasn’t worried.
“Let’s give Miss Daisy a big round of applause,” he said.
The students did, but perhaps a bit too loud. She didn’t enter.
“Where is my girlfriend?” Kirsch asked, walking over to the door. “C’mon, Daisy.”
She slowly meandered in the school door, wearing a pink ribbon.
He tried a couple times before scoring a kiss.
“Let’s hear it for Daisy,” Kirsch said as she headed for the door.
Kirsch was a good sport about the whole thing.
“It was wonderful,” he said. “She smelled very beautiful. She wasn’t that dirty.”
He said the families in the area were fantastic to support the cause of diabetes research.
“Any little thing I can do, I will,” he said.
The students thought it was hilarious.
“He deserved it,” said fifth-grader Mitchell Macik. Turning to his principal, he added with a grin, “You don’t like to get dirty.”
First-grader Christopher Peterson thought it was great.
“He kissed a pig!” he said as he chortled.
It’s a great cause and a good time, said fifth-grader Victoria Clarchick.
“It’s helping the diabetes association and watching our principal kiss a pig,” she said.