The Rainbow Connection is a charity that raises funds for children who are battling life-threatening illnesses, providing them with a dream vacation and time with their family. Their goal is to bring joy and happiness to families during their challenging times.
Earlier this year, Groves students selected The Rainbow Connection to be the sponsee of this year’s Charity Week. Groves Student Congress (GSC)– a committee that plans events and other various happenings around the school– didn’t just wake up with Charity Week planned and ready to happen, they put in hours of work behind the scenes to orchestrate this class-canceling, fun-filled tradition. This year, despite many cold and snow days canceling school and effectively postponing many Charity Week events, Groves students were able to rally together with enthusiasm and excitement to raise one of the biggest donations The Rainbow Connection has ever received.
GSC advisor Kara Mason has been helping the students to make sure the week runs smoothly.
“Last semester, I had two hours [classes], so the two separate hours brainstormed and then we presented everything,” Mason said. “We compiled them all into one big list, and then we shared them between the two hours to try and generate some ideas from there. We narrowed in a bit more and combined some things, hashed out some ideas to make it better then voted on some new ideas.”
Some of the most popular festivities included cash to cancel and food carts. During cash to cancel, students were given the opportunity to raise money to cancel class. One dollar canceled one minute of class. Some teachers, who didn’t want to give up their class time, offered different prizes. For example, a notecard on a test or a partner test. Most students work together with their peers to raise the money needed to cancel the entire hour. It’s definitely a Falcon favorite.
Food carts were also available during charity week. GSC students came to various classes, pushing carts stocked with donuts, crackers, candy, energy drinks, cookies and many other goodies. All of these were available for under $5, and made for a great mid-morning or afternoon snack! During lunch, students had the opportunity to get food from three different food trucks; Cinnabon, Jo’s Burgers and a taco truck. All of these were certainly a yummy addition to the week!
Another charity week tradition is the many entertaining games and events. Students are given the opportunity to raise money as a class to watch the events, or pay to watch them individually. Chopped, “Do You Know Your Duo?” and the charity week pep rally were highlights of the week. This year’s events were very entertaining. However, Falcons have some favorite events from past charity weeks that they would like to see return in the future, if possible.
“If I could add one thing, there was one year we did a student dodgeball game. I really enjoyed that,” Joseph Rusek, teacher at Groves, said.
Sophomore Eliana Shulkin’s favorite was from last year, an event called Sink or Swim.
“It was fun to see people’s boats, and also them in the water with their boats. The students got very involved in that event, and it was one of the most attended,” Shulkin said.
During this year’s charity week, Groves staff and students worked hard to raise money for The Rainbow Connection. They gave cash from their own pockets, asked friends and family for money and got local businesses to donate. By the end of the week, students and teachers were able to come together to raise close to $51,000. This was around $6,000 more than last year, and we hope to continue the upward trend! The Rainbow Connection does very important work, and Groves has been very proud to help them with their mission.
