BAHS hosts annual Crohn’s and Colitis dress down
Mr. Stewart was one of many teachers on Tuesday wearing jeans and even t-shirts in support of finding a cure for Crohns and Colitis.
September 19, 2017
Bellwood-Antis High School’s annual Jeans Day to benefit Crohn’s and Colitis research is underway.
Every year, Mrs. Sally Padula, through the National Honor Society club she advises, holds a fundraiser where teachers pay $5 to wear jeans to school. All of the proceeds go to the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America.
According to Mrs. Padula, the fundraisers have been very successful in the past—having raised anywhere between $250 to $500 dollars each year.
Crohn’s and Colitis are diseases that cause inflammation of the digestive tract. They share similar symptoms such as abdominal pain and weight loss. Colitis causes ulcers in the digestive tract in addition to inflammation and can affect the rectum and colon, too. Thus, symptoms such as diarrhea (often with blood or pus) and rectal bleeding can appear. Therapy, medication, and surgery can bring about remission in both diseases.
Both conditions can lead to life-threatening complications. Unfortunately, there is no known cure.
The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation hopes to change that. It is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization with the goals of finding cures to these two diseases and improving the lives of people affected by them. Funding research, providing educational workshops, and publishing a monthly scientific journal are just a few examples of what it does to achieve this end.
The mission of the CCFA resonates deeply with Mrs. Padula.
“The cause is important to me because my son suffers from Crohn’s. He’s had it since he was in sixth grade,” she said. “He’s now 22 years old. We’ve made a lot of strides in finding ways to deal with the disease with new medications and new research. So that’s what the CCFA does—they look for new research and new types of drugs that are able to help students and adults that have Crohn’s and Colitis.”
