Ten teachers forced to crawl on their knees to grab dollar bills in an attempt to fund school supplies are met with fury at a ‘degrading, dystopian’ public “Dash for Cash” event.

  • Half-time hockey game: Ten teachers picked up piles full of dollar bills 
  • Each educator was given 5 minutes to collect as much as $5,000. 
  • Sponsor CU Mortgage Direct said it was ‘an awesome thing to do for teachers’ 
  • However, footage from the incident drew backlash and was called ‘degrading” 










Video footage showing teachers frantically looking for dollar bills from cheering fans at a hockey match has been described as “degrading.”

A South Dakota mortgage broker sponsored the “Dash for Cash” event, where teachers tried to grab as many $1 bills from the ground in as five minutes. There was a maximum of $5,000 at stake.

The video shows educators crawling on their knees and stuffing dollars into their shirts at the Sioux Falls Stampede junior hockey game.

CU Mortgage Direct stated to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, that despite the difficult economic environment of the pandemic, it was an amazing group effort for teachers.

Others have criticised the money-grabbing scheme as “dystopian” and “degrading,” asking why they didn’t get the money from the mortgage lender.

Video shows the the educators crawling around on their hands and knees stuffing dollar bills into their shirts during the interval at the Sioux Falls Stampede junior ice hockey game on Saturday

The video shows educators stuffing dollars into their shirts while crawling on their knees during an intermission at Sioux Falls Stampede junior hockey game.

The teachers were trying to scoop up as many one dollar bills off the ground as they could in five minutes, with a total of $5,000 up for grabs

The teachers were trying to scoop up as many one dollar bills off the ground as they could in five minutes, with a total of $5,000 up for grabs

The competition took place during the interval at the Sioux Falls Stampede junior ice hockey game on Saturday

The competition took place during the interval at the Sioux Falls Stampede junior ice hockey game on Saturday

Teachers took so much money 

Barry Longden- Harrisburg High School $616

Alexandria Kuyper – Discovery Elementary School: $592

Stephanie Sparks – Brandon Valley Middle School: $574 

Madison Central: Jill Kratovil $569 

Sawyer Schmitz-Webster Elementary School $513 

Patrick Heyen – Memorial Middle School: $478 

Amy Staples, Oscar Howe Elementary school: $473 

Melissa Cole – Centerville Public School: $409

Leah Van Tol: LifeScape Specialty Schools $379 

Tasha Davis, Dell Rapids Public: $378

Frederick Joseph, NYT’s bestselling author and best-selling author said that all they wanted was resources and a living wage. Not this hunger game nonsense.

Paul Raushenbush is a religious activist. He tweeted, “It will be an amazing day when schools have everything they need and generals must degrade themselves in order to make enough money on the ground to buy a Bomber.”

William Legate CEO, Good Pillow Co. said, ‘Imagine, if this were done for cops to fund their supplies’

Teachers in South Dakota earned $49,000 on average in 2020.

The state ranks 49th in teacher salary in the US, just ahead of bottom-ranked Mississippi, with a salary of $45,192, and Florida, which averages $48,800.

Teachers are often forced to pay out of their own pockets for supplies in the classroom and have to rely on donations.

Business Insider’s 2019 survey found that 31 teachers from 19 states admitted to spending over $1,000 in their classrooms. 

Ten teachers managed to retain the cash, and Barry Longden of Harrisburg High School won the most. Longden was able to squeeze $616 into his tee-shirt.

According to the newspaper, he said he would spend the money on the school’s growing e-sports team.

Longden stated that obtaining equipment for children is just one component of making it accessible to them because without it, most kids wouldn’t have access.

He said, “I have been throwing my name into the hat wherever I can find in order to get opportunities for money for the children,”

Alexandria Kuyper (5th grade teacher) at Discovery Elementary School managed to get $592 out of the stack.

According to her, while the school has a Parent-Teacher Organization, which facilitates funding for classroom supplies and other small items, such as Christmas decorations, it can add up.

According to her, “It’s great when the community provides an opportunity such as this for things educations a lot often pay out of pocket for,” she said to the Argus leader.

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