Rio Vista Elementary, a Saugus Union School District school, held our first annual “Race to the Top” fundraiser.

The goal for this year’s fundraiser was to have students collect pledges in big hopes of receiving the daily “Top Banana” award.

The Top Banana award became a fun competition between our classrooms. When the fundraiser started, my school hoped to earn $15,000. We passed our goal and then some.

The final day of the fundraiser, we had a fun schoolwide relay: reading, running and arithmetic.

In the end, our top pledge collector was Zoie, with Kira and Cailyn in second and third place. Our top two classes were Mrs. Martinez’s sixth-grade class and Mrs. DeChellis’ kindergarten class.

I started at Rio Vista Elementary in kindergarten, and I am now a sixth-grade student.

From the bottom of my heart, I am happy to know that I will be leaving Rio Vista for middle school knowing we are “Top Banana.”

Jared Frank is a sixth-grade student at Rio Vista Elementary School.