What started off as joke in Aaron Portenga’s Advanced Placement Psychology classes quickly turned into a fundraiser for students who wanted to run track but could not afford their own running shoes.

To celebrate his wife Steffanie’s birthday (who also works in the building as a biology teacher) the couple went to Rush Studio in East Grand Rapids where they and about 30 others would follow along as an artist made a painting.

“My wife and I both made our own,” Portenga said. “It was a fun date night, but then you are stuck with this painting when you’re done and you’re like ‘what do we do with this?’ So I had joked to her that I’m going to take it into school and I’m going to auction this off to my students, thinking that it would not be that big of a deal or that no one would bid on it.”

On Monday, March 10 Portenga opened up the auction to his students. The price was set at $5.

“Then the bids went up,” Portenga said. “It looked like it was going to be legitimate and people were actually going to pay. I had to figure out ‘well what can we use the money for?’”

His next move was to ask around and see where in the school there was a need for funds. That need came from English as a Second Language teacher Ben Lawrence.

“I put out the news that I had a kid in need that needed some shoes and needed some gear for track season,” Lawrence said. “I always try to go to people like Portenga who I know will make an effort to announce it, to push it, to really get it done.”

Throughout the week the bets rose to over $30. In the end, junior Jessi Frankhouse took home the painting.

“I came in right after school Friday, no one was here so I just put in my bid,” Frankhouse said. “It’s going to a good cause.”

After raising $31.01, Lawerence is assured that the money is going to good use.

“I know it will mean a lot,” Lawerence said. “If you need something, it’s important to ask. I think some people are scared to ask because they think they can either get it done themselves or enough time will go by that people will forget about the need. I really think in a place like this where you have kids and teachers and administrators that are all connected somehow, if you just put the word out and ask often you will get what you need.”