How Philly groups are betting on the Super Bowl: Cheesesteaks, pies in the face, and many versions of ‘Fly, Eagles Fly’

The kids at E.M. Stanton Elementary in South Philadelphia are reading like crazy. Choristers from the Philadelphia Boys Choir, Philadelphia Girls Choir, and Commonwealth Youth Choir are scouring their pantries for canned goods.

With the Eagles taking on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, ’tis the season for local wagers of the friendly variety and various versions of “Fly, Eagles Fly.”

Here are how some local organizations are marking the forthcoming Birds vs. Chiefs game:

Philadelphia Youth Choral Ensembles — the umbrella organization that now represents the celebrated Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale, Philadelphia Girls Choir, and Commonwealth Youth Choir — is using the Super Bowl as a way to collect canned goods for Philabundance.

The groups have challenged Allegro Choirs of Kansas City and Kansas City Youth Chorus to see which city’s choirs can collect the most food.

To sweeten the pot, the Philadelphia choirs have told their young people that if they accumulate more cans than the Kansas City choirs, their three directors will all take pies to the face.

(And, obviously, win lifetime bragging rights.)

The group has also recorded a melodious rendition of “Fly, Eagles Fly.”

Principal Stacey Burnley likes a good challenge. So when word came through the Philadelphia School District that Nashua Elementary, a school in Kansas City, Mo., was looking to face off in a Super Bowl reading contest against a Philadelphia school, she was all in.

Reading is always emphasized at Stanton, a K-8 at 17th and Christian Streets in South Philadelphia. But all week, it’s been on, with students reading in English language arts, in science, in math, and everywhere else you can think of, and keeping close track of their minutes.

“We are reading all day long,” said Burnley, the school’s longtime principal, who was a little alarmed when she realized that Nashua enrolls about 200 students more than Stanton’s 316. No worries: The winner will be determined by the average minutes per student.

“We have a spreadsheet, and we’re already up to 100,000 minutes,” Burnley said. Everyone is into it, Burnley said — the Stanton orchestra played its version of “Fly, Eagles Fly,” and there were cupcakes.

Weather? No problem. Thursday’s predicted wintry mix caused Philadelphia to call a virtual day of instruction, perfect for lots of reading. Kansas City?

“They had a snowstorm so they had school canceled one day, so that was good,” Burnley said.

The winner does it for the glory and the reading boost — there’s no physical prize involved.

In what Stanton is hoping is a bellwether for the big game, the winner was announced with great fanfare on Friday: Philly takes the prize.

Upper Merion Superintendent Tamara Smith made a deal with Mike Kimbrel, superintendent of the Kansas City-area Park Hill School District: If the Eagles win, she’ll ship an Eagles shirt and cheesesteaks to Missouri. He’ll eat the steak — outfitted in the shirt, naturally — and share photographic proof.

If the Chiefs beat the Birds, Smith will don a Chiefs shirt sent to her by Kimbrel and eat Kansas City barbecue.

“I sincerely hope I do not have to eat my words,” Smith said. “But no matter what, we are so proud of our hometown team, and we love to come together as a school district to cheer them on.”

Before the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, Michael Horwits, a social studies teacher at Central High School, engineered a wager with a Massachusetts school.

It follows that Horwits forged a relationship with Central High in Kansas City, Missouri’s oldest public school — Central is Pennsylvania’s oldest public school, second-oldest in the nation — and on Friday morning hashed out a deal.

“There are two great histories with both schools, and I am so proud to be just associated with such a great school in Philadelphia,” Central Kansas City principal Anthony Holland said in a virtual meeting. Then he promised: If the Eagles win, he and some students would wear Eagles gear and send barbecue, side dishes, and specialty popcorn.

Either way, Horwits promised to send cheesesteaks, Tastykakes, and Eagles cookies from Bredenbeck’s Bakery in Chestnut Hill. (The mascot of Central KC is the Blue Eagles, by the way, so Holland said he’d be up for a “Go Birds.”)

Central High Philly student officers will wear Chiefs red if Kansas City prevails, a fact that alarmed Holland a little.

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous in Philadelphia?” he asked.

Game on, representatives from both Centrals agreed: It was going to be a good game.

“You got your Super Bowls,” Horwits told Holland. “Give us one.”

Kansas City, Kan., Superintendent Jennifer Collier threw down the gauntlet this week to Philadelphia Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.

If the Chiefs win, Watlington has to wear red and send a basket of Philadelphia-themed goodies to Collier. If the Eagles prevail, Collier wears green and sends barbecue.

“We know you think the Chiefs are smokin’ hot, like your barbecue, but we have hotter things here in Philly, like our sizzling cheesesteaks — whiz wit — and our phenomenal Philadelphia Eagles. Go Birds!” Watlington said.

Challenge accepted.

The Prometheus Ukrainian Male Chorus of Philadelphia, based in Jenkintown, sang “Fly, Eagles Fly” in English and Ukrainian.

The Wayne Oratorio Society’s “Fly, Eagles Fly”: