When Camas High School won $10,000 in a Cash for Schools contest, the students could have easily held onto the money.Instead, they decided to share some of it with Rosa Parks Elementary in Portland. The school is starting up an orchestra program, and was in need of funds. It also has one of the highest free- and reduced-price lunch rates in the area.
Cash for Schools is a contest sponsored by McLoughlin Jeep in partnership with KATU News. The contest asked schools to bring the most Facebook “Likes” to McLoughlin Jeep in a given week.
CHS was the first school to win, and the students were given the check by anchors Carl Click and Natali Marmion.
After leadership students learned more about Rosa Parks Elementary and its orchestra program, the Papermakers’ band, cheerleaders and leadership students popped in for a surprise lunchtime visit to deliver a $1,000 check. The young students were “mesmerized” by the event, according to CHS principal Steve Marshall.
“Their orchestra inspired our band, too,” he commented. “Their music program started in November and the young musicians were amazing – very poised, very serious and very proud of what they could do. Moreover, their students impressed all of us. They were very respectful, attentive and well-behaved. So, the experience created a mutual respect between the two schools.”