Publications & Sites 
Mustachioed Hinsdale students celebrate
Yasmina Eshac (far left) Avery Secola (center) and Jackson Steigbigel wait their turn to pin a sheriff's star on a cowboy or cowgirl during Monroe School's rodeo. | Kimberly Fornek—Sun-Times Media
Article Extras
Updated: April 29, 2013 2:12AM
HINSDALE — Line dancing and roping horses are not usually in the lesson plans at Monroe School. But school officials wanted to reward the students for their generous support of the school.
The students collected nearly $5,000 in “boot-loot,” by bringing their extra change to school and dropping it in a boot there.
The money will be spent on a variety of school materials, such as nonfiction books, and technology, said Monroe Principal Dawn Benaitis.
To celebrate their donations, the children got to enjoy a cowboy-themed “Monrodeo” Friday.
They had line dancing lessons; roped pretend horses, tossing plastic hoops, instead of lariats; and pinned sheriff’s stars on cowboy and cowgirl figures, in a Western version of “pin the tail on the donkey.”
“It’s really fun,” said 9-year-old Abby Chute.
The rodeo theme made sense because the school’s mascot is a horse, Abby said.
Several fourth-graders, such as James Barrett and Ben Ognibene, said they enjoyed learning to line dance the most.
The children, boys and girls alike, were given fake black moustaches and red bandanas to assume a cowboy persona. They then posed before red barn and corral backdrops, which was Audrey Giltner’s favorite thing at the rodeo.
“You got to make funny faces,” Audrey said.
A few boys improvised and trimmed the mustaches to make a “soul patch” of hair they put on their chins. They then wrapped the bandanas around their heads, instead of their necks, and said they were going for the gangster look.
