On January 28, the gym at Hastings High School was filled to the rafters with fans to see the Tigers take on the Adams Central Patriots in a crosstown basketball showdown. Although there were two very distinct sides, there was one thing that all the fans had in common: lavender.
In order to raise money for the American Cancer Society, the girls in the second quarter sophomore leadership class decided to sell “Beat Cancer” t-shirts to students at both Hastings High and Adams Central. The purple shirts were a huge success; 371 shirts were sold to fans of both schools to raise approximately $1,900 for cancer research. In addition, there were more than 225 ribbons sold the night of the game through free will donation; this raised an extra $300.
Pete Theoharis, the leadership class teacher, says that the reaction to the shirts greatly exceeded his expectations.
“I thought we would get a couple hundred [shirts], so to get almost 400 was impressive,” he said.
Sophomore leadership student Lindsey LaBrie agrees with Theoharis that the sale went better than expected.
“It went really well,” LaBrie said. “I didn’t expect so many people to buy, but it was good that they did.”
Overall, Theoharis says that he was proud of the work the girls did to make the project a success.
“The girls had awesome effort spreading the word and getting another school to join in,” Theoharis said.
LaBrie felt that the project helped give meaning to her time in the leadership class.
“We did it at the end of the semester so it was kind of like a cap on everything,” LaBrie said. “If we hadn’t have done it, there would have been no reason to take the class.”
