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Health & Fitness

Wounded Warrior Week a Huge Success

Brighton High School had a week dedicated to The Wounded Warrior Project, a fundraiser focusing on empowering and honoring wounded soldiers.

Every year BHS picks an organization for which to raise money. Like Think Pink Week and Toys for Tots, this year’s choice was the Wounded Warrior Project. The goal is to raise awareness not only at BHS but also to the community.

In charge of the week on the students behalf is “Major General” Tess Johnston.

“I hope that the student gains awareness for this amazing project. The Wounded Warrior Project does amazing things for amazing men and women that have been handicapped while serving for our country and many people don’t realize all the people that need assistance,” Johnston said.

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Over forty thousand members of armed forces have been physically wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is estimated that three hundred thousand  armed forces will be sent home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Many soldiers are being sent home to almost nothing, and are not receiving any help. The Wounded Warrior Project funds, to help these particular soldiers. Their mission is to empower and honor wounded warriors.

The purpose of the Wounded Warrior Project is to raise awareness to the public and help set up special programs designed to help provide unique treatment centers for those who need them. Another key factor is that the program is designed to tackle is the financial troubles for those who return home.

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“It is a feel-good project really. Anytime someone helps another person out in anyway it makes him or her both feel happy. And there is no greater gift to anyone then just simply lending a hand,” Leadership teacher Arnella Park said.

Always a tradition at BHS, when trying to raise money for a certain fund, T-shirts come to mind. In the past Think Pink Week used t-shirts to raise money towards breast cancer research as well as raise awareness. The Wounded Warroior Project made their own T-shirts and they were sold at seven dollars a piece at all lunches.

Besides the T-shirts, to raise awareness to the Wounded Warrior Project, the Leadership class  decided to bring out the competition between the senior and junior class. Thursday the 24th, 30 junior boys and 30 senior boys competed against each other in BHS’ first men’s volleyball game. The junior boys won 29-27 in the third set, sealing the night’s victory. All proceeds went to the Wounded Warrior fund.

A new addition to spreading awareness and the fundraising techniques is the dunk tank. Chairman and credited with coming up with the spectacular idea is Jackson Pizzo. During lunches on Wednesday, the 22nd, the leadership class will be hosting the first Dunk Tank ever to be held at BHS. Henry Vecchioni, Jack Yates, Gavin Johnson, Dr. Greg Gray and the men of Leadership will be seeing if students
have what it takes to get them dunked into the freezing water. To show off how tough the men can really be, not only do they deal with the cruel water temperatures but also Mother Nature herself. They will be outside during all three lunches. One dollar bought three tickets for three turns.

“I thought it would be a fun way to get the students interested and involved in the cause. Plus everyone is excited to see some of our administrators get dunked,” Pizzo said.

Pizzo’s idea along with the enthusiasm from Gray, Vecchioni and Yates led to the cold plunge into the water.

“I understood it was for a great cause, and I felt everyone should contribute,” Yates said.

To really get student involvement and student awareness, following the Brighton Boys basketball game there was suppose to be a casual dance. Due to an unexpected snow day, the dance and game was cancelled but a special thanks still to Chad Barribeau and Reily Kemmerling for providing the drinks and ice cream for the dance. Luke Gustafson was going to be the student DJ for the dance.

Due to the weather, Camo Day was moved to Wednesday the 29th and was a boys’ hockey game instead.

A success once again at BHS, the student body and administrative staff reached their goal of raising awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project.

Allyson Strickland - BHS Times Patch Editor

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