Not Just Another Football Game
by Dawn Weir
November 04, 2009
One football game, one rainy night, two football teams. Under
normal circumstances the only thing on everybody’s mind is the
game, but this game is different. The Clash for Cancer game had a
special twist to it to raise money for the American Cancer
Society.
“(I think this game was) definitely (a good way to raise money)
because the whole community supports the football team anyways,”
Afton Bradley (12) said. “Then to throw a good cause behind it just
makes it a lot better.”
The school has participated in this Clash for Cancer game for two
years counting last year. Last year it was the responsibility of
Plattsburg to organize it. This year the responsibility fell to our
Lawson school. The Lawson Booster Club and many other people really
wanted to raise the bar from last year.
“Last year we raised a total of $1,200,” Karri Kirkendoll,
president of the committee, said. “We decided that we were going to
more than double it. This year we ended up raising $3,000. We hope
to raise more every year.”
Along with the goal of raising more money the committee wanted the
game to be more focused on the cancer aspect. They sold T-shirts,
cancer beads, tattoos, and glow in the dark sticks at the game with
most of the proceeds going to the cause. The Booster Club also
decided to get pink pom-poms for the cheerleaders, special uniforms
for the football players, and they even painted pink on the
football field.
“(The jersey’s) were awesome man; it was a change of pace that was
pretty cool,” Kendall Saunders (9), a Lawson football player, said.
“Everybody was pumped about wearing them.”
The spectators not only noticed all the pink decorations but at
halftime there was a difference from the normal halftime. Both
teams cheerleaders did a special dance to the song “Thriller.”
Since the game was just two nights before Halloween the song was
very appropriate.
“We practiced for two weeks on the ‘Thriller’ dance,” Mary Kate
Watson (11), a Lawson cheerleader, said. “We decided on the name
‘Scare Away Cancer.’ It was lots of fun.”
Also, at halftime 12 people who had survived any form of cancer
were recognized. The planners had originally planned on 24 but due
to the rainy weather that night half of them could not attend.
“I thought it was a good way to show support and a good way to
recognize the people who made it through the challenge,” Bradley
said. “They deserved a round of applause for what they went through
or are going through. It was a wonderful feeling to know people
cared so much.”
During the halftime show Suzan Chronkite, the representative for
the American Cancer Society, accepted the $3000 check.
“Suzan Chronkite was extremely happy about receiving the check,”
Scott Harrold, Lawson athletic director, said.
The Booster Club and everybody involved worked very hard on putting
this together.
“I just want to make sure that you thank everybody involved,”
Kirkendoll said. “It took a lot of time and hard work to make this
work and without the help of everybody involved it wouldn’t have
been as successful.”
