Dodgeball Tournament Raises $726 for Salvation Army
By Bill Punyko
Dodgeball Tournament at Superior High School | Explore Superior©
Years ago, the students and staff at Central Middle school had a fund raiser for Toys for Tots that culminated by having the Principal, John Blankush, dressing up as an elf and going to Walmart to buy presents with the fire department. The fun of giving at the holidays was a special event that brought the school together and had the different wings of the middle school competing to join Mr. Blankush at the store.
We felt that a dodgeball tournament would capture some of the energy 9th graders come with from the middle school and help create a team identity among the four 9th grade teams. Giving everyone a chance to gain a sense of community at SHS, fostering a sense of charity and honoring the past would be a fun thing to do before the holiday break.
Science teacher Lee Sims led the organization and planning of the event with the help of teachers Mike Weinandt, Mark Winkle and Bryan Denninger. Students were encouraged to donate money for a chance to play in the tournament.
For every $10 raised, the team selected an additional player for a maximum of 20 players. A display of elves was put up in the cafeteria representing the number of players each team earned. The tournament took place on Thursday, December 17th.
Winners of the “Wrench” Trophy earned the right to play a team of teachers | Explore Superior©
The winners of the tournament got awarded a trophy of a large wrench. People familiar with the movie Dodgeball with Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor and Vince Vaughn will get the inside joke. They also earned the right to play against the staff team in front of the whole school during the advisory/lunch period on the last day before the break. This has provided some added enthusiasm to ‘get’ a teacher out in dodgeball, but the whole experience has been a great deal of fun.
(For the record, at no time during this tournament did the following action take place!)
In total the students raised $726.10 which was given to Major David Clark of the Salvation Army and Bob Zimmerman, Mike Hoyt and Lane Halvorson of the Superior Fire Department.
Bryan Denninger is one of our lead teachers that works with some pretty tough kids, and he said we’ve had a hard time getting these kids to buy-in. “Yesterday was a buy-in day,” he said. “They really got excited and did a great job. What was exciting is that some kids who don’t normally get involved in things at school had fun and had a sense of giving back.”
Final Results: The staff won on Friday, December 18 by a score of two games to one.
