Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Liberty fourth-graders Revin Kyees, 10, left, and Isaac Seifert, 10, participate in a “dress down” day Friday to raise money for Caroline Pizarro, a Chase Bank employee, who was seriously injured in Tuesday’s explosion at the Realty Tower in downtown Youngstown. Her daughter is in the fourth grade at Blott-Guy PK-6 School.

LIBERTY — High School Principal Brian Knight’s outfit was enough to turn heads on the district’s last day of classes Friday.

Knight, the district’s next superintendent effective Aug. 1, swapped his typical professional attire for something more retro. Walking through the elementary school hallways Friday morning, Knight flaunted his “dress down day” attire — a bucket hat, a button-down shirt and shorts, all of which were patterned with neon pink and green stripes, shapes and swirls, reminiscent of something one would see on a carpet or jacket designed in the 1990s.

“I traditionally like to find something that the kids will remember on the last day of school so they can talk about it at the beginning of the year next year,” Knight said. “This year, I had already had this planned, but it just gave us an opportunity to really exaggerate it a little bit and let the kids be silly too.”

Knight joined the students in wearing unique outfits for dress down day Friday. He said the high school typically does such events to raise money for a good cause. Each student who wants to participate pays $1 and is allowed to “dress down.”

This time, students throughout the district got involved to support one of their own.

Caroline Pizarro, a Chase Bank employee, was seriously injured in Tuesday’s explosion at the Realty Tower in downtown Youngstown. Pizarro was in her office at the bank when the natural gas explosion occurred.

Pizarro’s daughter, Ariqena, is a fourth-grade student at Blott-Guy PK-6 School.

She and other victims were transported to the hospital. Pizarro has been in critical condition.

Matthew Cowher, Pizarro’s boyfriend, said Thursday that Pizarro is improving but still in pain.

Cowher said she suffered major injuries to her eyes, face and legs, and she is expected to be in the hospital for at least a month.

“We recognized that there was a family in need as a result of the unfortunate incident downtown,” Knight said. “It impacted one of our fourth-grade students and we wanted to see what we could do to immediately help.”

Jason Yemma, third- to sixth-grade principal at the elementary school, said the students were thrilled to contribute to the fundraiser.

“Even kids that didn’t dress down brought a dollar to help support the cause,” Yemma said. “It’s been a great response all around.”

The elementary school cafeteria looked like a Halloween party with the variety of attire. Some students took the term “dress down” literally, wearing pajamas, robes and slides like they just got out of bed.

Others used the opportunity to put together creative costumes.

Third-grader Svana Pekalla wore a cat onesie with a hood that had ears and whiskers.

Fourth-grader Revin Kyees went “all out” with his clothing choice. He wore a pair of white underpants on his head. He said the outfit was inspired by the book and movie “Captain Underpants.”

“I go all out on a lot of things,” he said.

Along with the funds raised by Liberty schools, Cowher also set up a GoFundMe to help with medical expenses. As of Friday afternoon, the fund had reached over $17,000.

When Pizarro heard what her daughter’s school was doing, Cowher said she was “very emotional.”