By Kathy Onorato
Wiscasset High School is gearing up to show off its Wolverine pride and together with its community hopes to be the winner in WGME 13’s School Spirit Challenge.
Wiscasset High School’s Student Council gets ready to take WGME’s Spirit Cup Challenge. (Kathy Onorato photo)
The school was notified earlier this month that it will be one of nine schools to compete in season two of the School Spirit Challenge. This is a competition between schools throughout Maine to show school and community spirit while collecting food to help feed the hungry.
WGME 13 sponsors the challenge, which benefits the Good Shepard Food Bank. The school collecting the most pounds of food will be declared the winner and awarded the Spirit Cup.
“I know the Wolverines can get the job done,” said WHS Student Council Advisor Deb Pooler.
The first round of the School Spirit Challenge ended in late October and netted 126,383 pounds of food for the Good Shepard Food Bank. Biddeford High School won the Spirit Cup in season one, collecting 42,855 pounds of food.
Pooler said the competition is perfect timing for Wiscasset and she hopes to get the entire community behind the high school. She plans on attending the next Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce to seek support of every business in town.
Student Council President Logan Grover said the school will benefit from participating in the challenge. “It will bring the community together and create a renewed pride in our school,” he said.
The food collection at Wiscasset High school will begin Jan. 3, 2014 and continue until Feb. 21. Pooler said the school plans on collecting food as admission to the home basketball games this season as one way to get the community involved. Money donations are always welcomed.
For every dollar collected the school will get credit for five pounds of food. The winner of the contest will be announced on Feb. 28.
WGME 13 early morning anchor Jeff Peterson will visit Wiscasset High School on Jan. 31 for the school’s pep rally as part of the challenge. Pooler hopes all students, their parents, and community members will attend the pep rally to show Wolverine pride and community spirit.
Pooler and the student council will be planning several activities to create a fun-filled morning. The pep rally will begin at 5 a.m, and run until 7 a.m. Portions of the pep rally will run live on WGME 13 throughout the morning broadcast on Jan. 31.
“It (the pep rally) will be over by 7 a.m. so people can come and still get to work,” Pooler said.
The Student Council has appointed a Spirit Cup planning committee that will meet next week to begin making plans for the challenge.
Pooler said she nominated Wiscasset High School because the students, parents, teachers and community have always come together for a good cause and have always exceeded expectations. “We have an amazing school, with quality kids,” Pooler said. “Its not necessarily the size of the school that makes it better.”
“We are excited about the event because of the opportunity it allows us to demonstrate our school and community spirit and the power of what we know we can do when we’re all working together for a very good cause – to help address the hunger needs of families in our area,” said Wiscasset High School Principal Deb Taylor.
Wiscasset is one of the smallest schools in the competition which includes Messalonskee, McAuley Portland, Deering, Brunswick, Wiscasset, Cheverus, Poland and South Portland.
“As we say at Wiscasset High School, we are small, but we are mighty and we’re anxious to show WGME 13 just how mighty we can be,” said Taylor.
