Grill on the hill raises funds for high school athletics

Mackenzie Freund, City Editor

The Grill on the Hill fundraiser brought people to support Charleston High School athletics and other clubs at the Trojan Hill and Charleston Middle School Friday.

The fundraiser included a dunk tank where people could dunk teachers, a game sponsored by the girls tennis team and a face painting station by the art club.

Different teachers and students sat in the dunk tank waiting for people to dunk them while the National Guard helped people do pull-ups on the high bar.

The art club was outside painting faces and arms while some of the art club students sold cookies.

Madison Cothren, a senior at Charleston High School, said she has been part of the art club all through high school and has volunteered for two years at the Grill on the Hill event.

Cothren said she loves spending time with the people in art club and being able to do her part in helping out the school.

Cothren said the art club does school-themed face painting and basic fun designs along with body painting for the “Grateful Red” fan section.

Cothren said she was going to stay for the football game that started after the fundraiser was over.

“I like watching the band at half time because they work so hard,” Cothren said.

The girls tennis team had a booth where teammates sold glow-stick necklaces and had a game for people to play.

Donna Flight, a mother of one of the tennis players, said the teammates will fundraise once or twice a year to support themselves, but the booster club usually supports them and the other teams.

Flight said the goal of the game was to throw a tennis ball through holes in a board that were above the net.

“They get a necklace if they win, or if they don’t. They get a necklace either way,” Flight said.

Flight said the money they fundraise helps out with the cost of the end-of-the-year banquet.

Eva Bacon, a senior at Charleston High School, said she hopes the event raised a lot of money for the school and she hoped for a win from the football team.

Bacon said she thought the best part of the day would be bonding with the team and with classmates outside of the classroom.

“Everyone from school (was) getting together outside of school and having a good time,” Bacon said.

The music department was selling spirit items, donuts and water as part of a fundraiser for the choir to go to New Orleans in the spring.

Kathy Nadler, the president of the booster club, said planning the fundraiser took a lot of time and prep work.

Nadler said the chair of Grill on the Hill, Maureen Smith, has been organizing the event for a few months and has had help from the board and other community members.

“That’s the neat thing about it, it kind of brings people in,” Nadler said.

 

Mackenzie Freund can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected]