Football Team Passes Lift-a-Thon Funds to Special Education Department

There are many different ways a high school sports team can leave an impact on it's school, and the Port Washington High School varsity football found one way to do so without scoring a touchdown or completing a pass: a Lift-a-Thon.

The Lift-a-Thon event sent players on the football team on a hunt for pledges from various residents, businesses and other organizations. Once they collect all of their pledges, each individual athlete must lift the equivalent of the total amount of pledges that they received.

Every spring for the past seven years they have held this event to help raise money for various causes, and this year the funds will help purchase a touch screen SMART Board for the special education department.

In past years, the money has gone towards new, but needed, equipment for the team in order to keep up with the competition, and to a special fund set up for a junior on the football team who had been diagnosed with Leukemia, as well as other charities.

This year's decision to donate to the special education department came out of a growing relationship between the team and the department, according to varsity football coach Tim Greisch.

"We have a very good relationship with them," Greisch said. "The players and the special education students interact very well. I myself pop in down there once a day to say 'hi' and talk to them."

The most fascinating part of the interaction between the special education department students and the players involves one of the students, Corey Baake, who is the manager of the football team.

"The players enjoy being around him," Greisch said. "They give him rides home, they hang out with him at school and they sit next to him during lunch."

The total cost of the SMART Board is $3,500 dollars, and the proceeds from Lift-a-Thon added up to $2,600 dollars. 

The team still has some donations coming in, but if they don't raise enough money for the SMART Board, Greisch said they are considering purchasing a state of the art projector and a Nintendo Wii to help with motor skill interaction for the special education students.