Student Council is currently hosting a fundraiser in collaboration with the Make-A-Wish club. Members of both organizations are “whipping up wishes” by fundraising for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Students are able to donate in a staff member’s name. Each staff member who receives $200 in their name will be pied in the face at the Think Pink pep rally on Oct. 6.
The proceeds from the fundraiser will go to Make-A-Wish Gulf Louisiana, an organization that grants wishes to children with critical illnesses. These wishes are granted during or after treatment and provide hope to the child and their family. In fact, the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s website states that 87% of alumni say their wish was a turning point in recovery.
The Student Council sponsors, Christine Badillo and Ricardo Garcia hope the following interview, which has been edited for clarity, will motivate students to donate in their name, or to the overall fundraiser.
Anna Gratz: What is your motive to participate in this fundraiser?
Christine Badillo: Make-A-Wish is a very important organization to my family, my son (Zach) was diagnosed with cancer when he was two and finished treatment when he was five and a half, so last year we received his wish trip. Make-A-Wish Gulf Coast Louisiana, the one we are donating to is the same one that ran our trip so we believe in the power of this foundation. We want to raise as much money as possible.
Ricardo Garcia: My motive is to try to do something to give back in recognition of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, just trying to bring awareness to it and have a little fun while we incentivize people to donate.
AG: What is one message you would like to share with the CHS community about the impact this fundraiser has on the Make-A-Wish Foundation?
CB: For every kid that they grant a wish to, I think their budget is around $15,000 and most of that is raised through philanthropic and altruistic ways companies, corporations, and individuals, so for our campus Make-A-Wish club their hope is to be able to sponsor an entire kids wish. If we can all band together as a Ranger family, I think we can make a kid’s wish come true and that’s pretty powerful to say we did that.
RG: I’d like for the community to know that every little bit helps and we are trying to obviously make a wish come true for a child who had cancer or has cancer (or any critical illness) so just try to dig deep and do what you can to make that happen.
AG: If you could nominate any other teacher in this school who is not already in the lineup to do this fundraiser, who would it be and why?
CB: I personally would like to nominate Mr. Kevin Byrd. I think that he is known around the school and he’s got a great personality for jokes and I think the kids would like to pie him in the face as kind of a retaliation for all the jokes he pulls on us.
RG: I think I would have to nominate Coach Jezek. I’m sure he would love to do it. I know a lot of students would love to try to see him get pied because he is so engaging and really puts forth all his effort to make sure he does whatever he needs to for kids
AG: How do you think this year’s fundraiser compares to last year’s “Kiss the pig” challenge?
CB: I feel like last year it was a little bit more competitive with the teachers that there could only be one winner, so with (The band director) Mr. Johnson having the backing of the band they were going to make sure he was going to kiss that pig. I think this year it’s awesome that any teacher can be pied… there’s a little bit less of a competition aspect to it, so sometimes that can slow down the drive, but I think getting more teachers involved and giving them that opportunity to participate is pretty awesome.
RG: We’re raising a little bit less than we have so far prior to last year. I like the fact that multiple people could do this and hopefully, it entices people to actually donate and see tons and everyone on the list of pies.
AG: How did you advertise for students to donate in your name?
CB: I told all of my students, I have about 185 kids so I told them all, we put fliers up, At one point I did run through C lunch screaming to donate and just walked around with the fliers, but sometimes kids are more open to donating when they hear our personal stories about how Zach was a beneficiary of the Make-A-Wish foundation.
RG: I’ve talked about it in my class. I’ve tried to put in terms they understand. I have a lot of seniors in my class and so I try to get them to understand -if you just do one less college application you can donate that money to something that can make a huge difference in a kid’s life.
