Bensalem Principal Spends Night On Roof As Fundraiser Promise

Updated: 1:30 p.m. Friday

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —Principal Kelly McGowan made a promise to her students at Belmont Hills Elementary School.

If they raised $25,000 for new playground equipment, she'd sleep on the school roof.

And that's exactly where she was Thursday night.

"It was awesome," she told Patch Friday afternoon. "I periodically took little cat naps."

The Cornwells Fire Company escorted McGowan to the roof of the school at 5000 Neshaminy Blvd. school Thursday night where there was a pizza party from Valley Pizza and story time in the evening before McGowan got into her tent and went to sleep.

"Earlier today Tower 16 assisted Belmont Elementary School’s Principal Kelly McGowan onto the roof of the school. She told her students that if they raised $25,000 for new playground equipment she would be spending the night on the roof of the school," the fire company said. "We were happy to help her keep that promise.

The Belmont Hills Parent-Teachers Group actually raised $25,392 for new playground equipment, thus sending McGowan to the roof where she became a celebrity as Philadelphia television stations highlighted the event, which was not organized by the Bensalem Township School District.

"It was a little overwhelming," she said. "But this was such positivity for the school."

The group said it received 383 donations.

McGowan pitched a tent and got through the night, protected during the evening by school staff and the Bensalem Township Police Department.

She's no stranger to camping, spending time in the great outdoors at the Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Park, among other places.

The 5th-year principal said her students a challenge was proposed and her sleeping on the roof was "an incentive" to see how much money could be raised.

"It's amazing how parents and the school got together in such a quick time and raised $25,000 in four weeks," said School Board Director Marc Cohen, who as treasurer of the Bensalem Rotary Club said the organization donated $500 to the cause. "What a great community of parents, students, teachers, and administrators. I give a shoutout to Principal McGowan and all the great work she is doing there."

McGowan said she's going to get a lot of sleep this weekend to catch up.

(Photos Courtesy by Cornwells Fire Company)