On Nov 16, students and coaches from a variety of winter activities gathered in the gym for a brand new type of fundraising called “Hour-a-Thon”. 

This is the first time the school has done this type of fundraiser. Rather than raising money through product sales or Spartan Cards, students were expected to call and text people to collect direct donations through a website link.

This new type of fundraiser wasbeneficial for a wide variety of winter activities, not just sports. 

Senior Mock Trial member Claudia Fezzey expla

ins that at her time in the organization, Mock Trial has not been included in athletic fundraisers such as Spartan Card sales.

“There’s a lot of expenses with these clubs too,” Fezzey said. 

According to Fezzey, Mock Trial will likely put the money raised at Hour-a-Thon towards travel expenses for trips to competitions in Eau Claire, Milwaukee, and Madison. The same will go for other groups like Harvard Model United Nation with their tri

p to Boston later in the year. 

In addition to this, students benefited from the new method of raising money because of the time aspect. Prior product sales that were expected of teams took weeks to complete. Hour-a-Thon, however, was over in one evening. 

“I think it was a lot of fun because it wasn’t extremely

 time consuming,” Fezzey said. 

Activities entered in the fundraiser were Boys Swim and Dive, G

irls Basketball, Wrestling, Mock Trial, Cheer, FBLA, Harvard Model UN, Dance, Girls Hockey, Gymnastics, Boys Ho

A large aspect of the night’s success was the competition between teams. Teams were able to see live updates of the fundraiser with the amount each group was raising.

“Everybody will be together. So it can get into that competition mode” Activity Director Ella Olson said prior to the fundraiser. 

Throughout the hour, teams celebrated when a large donation for their team was announced. 

As for the money raised at Hour-a-Thon, a chunk will go to the activity’s department budget for necessary things like uniforms and travel. The other chunk, however, can go to extra purchases of the teams choosing. This could be for things such as free, discounted apparel or extra funds for traveling.

“That’s really important to me and to the district is if we ask a student to fundraise they should benefit from it,” Olson said.

The fundraiser has helped teams raise several thousand dollars. These donations will have considerable benefits for sports and activities throughout the remainder of their seasons.