Two Palmerton Area School District board members and two local businesses are joining together to help erase delinquent student meal accounts.

Directors Earl and Danielle Paules presented a check to the district last week for $4,000,

“We all take it for granted,” Earl Paules said. “When we open up our refrigerators, there is food in it. Not everyone has that luxury, and it’s difficult for some families to afford a meal. It was very important to us to raise this money to help those families.”

According to Palmerton business manager Ryan Kish, the $4,000 donation, along with a check from Giant Food Stores for $2,786.92 in April, will take the student delinquent lunch debt from $9,594.15 to $2,807.23.

Of the total donation, the Paules’ contributed $1,000 from T-shirt sales made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bradco Systems contributed $2,000, and A&A Towing and Recovery added $1,000.

Near the end of 2020, Earl Paules turned a spur of the moment quote into a fundraising opportunity. In the midst of a nearly five-hour discussion on whether Palmerton should temporarily transition to a fully remote educational model during the pandemic, Earl, a staunch supporter of in-person education for students, used the Palmerton mascot (a Blue Bomber) to support his point of trying to come up with creative solutions to keep students in school as much as possible.

“We’re in a war fighting with a virus,” Paules said during that meeting. “A Bomber, during war, doesn’t land and park itself until the war is over. A Bomber comes out and fights. I’m standing behind you.”

That phrase made its way onto the back of a shirt that he sold, with proceeds going to the outstanding student lunch fund debt in the district.

“The sale went really well,” he said. “A lot of school board members and community members have those shirts. Danielle and I just wanted to do something to help out the students, so they are able to afford the meals here in school.”

He said the district plans to set up a fund through the Carbon County Community Foundation that will allow anyone to contribute donations for the purpose of lunch debt.