Autographed Football Winner!

I was fortunate that my school district was very supportive of my family and I as we set out to raise money for the Special Olympics' through the Polar Bear Plunge. The week leading up to the original plunge date, they allowed me to sell pencils in the cafeteria for a chance to win the autographed Kerry Rhodes Jets' football that was very kindly donated to Colin and our efforts.

We have a class full of wonderful students who call themselves "The Gang" who have a wide range of abilities that helped me that week man the table in the cafeteria. I was honored that they were gracious enough to help and it allowed me a chance to get to know these wonderful students better, who have all participated in the Special Olympics.

Aside from the 2 days that we were out of school due to snow, we sat at the table during all lunch periods and sold the pencils. At the table, I had a picture of the autographed football, and a picture of Colin with some information about him and having Down Syndrome, as well as about the plunge. Many of the students that I know well were my "PR" crew and helped to get a lot of the students interested in purchasing a chance.

At the same time, our good friend Meredith did the same thing in the middle school and actually sold double the amount that I did! (Middle school students are much more interested in buying cool pencils than high school students are!) We were able to raise over $200 in just 3 days and at the warming up party, a name was selected....

The winner was an 8th grade student from our middle school! He was very excited to win and I was very proud to be part of such a supportive district. Thank you everyone!

Please follow this link to see the 8th grade winner on the districts' website!