SHS students tabbed to lead Fourth of July parade

SANDPOINT — The Sandpoint Lions Club has named its grand marshal for this year’s July Fourth Parade, and it’s a doozy: the entire Sandpoint High School student body.

“The high school kids in this area are pretty neat,” Lions Club representative Judy Dabrowski said of the club’s choice. “They’ve helped out the Lions Club a lot with Toys for Tots.”

Dabrowski estimated the school has helped raise over $20,000 for the Toys for Tots program during the last four years, and donated over 6,000 hours of community service during the 2014-’15 school year alone.

“We think the kids in our community are outstanding as both students and community members,” Dabrowski said. “The high school and this community have a really good working relationship, and so we decided it would be kind of fun for us, and fun for them — we hope — to give them the credit I think they deserve.”

The exact impact the school’s contribution has had on the city can be a challenge to pin down, and depends on who one talks with.

“The kids in our school collectively raise thousands and thousands of dollars every year for different things,” according to social studies teacher and Interact Club advisor Erica Haynes. “Each little group is doing so much.”

But she admitted they have never looked at or tried to quantify the exact amount raised by the school collectively.

According to administrative officials there are about 25 different organized clubs at SHS, depending on how one defines “club.” The number varies each year depending on interest in subject matter among the student body.  

 According to Lions Club President Tom Dabrowski, the student body selected the Lion’s Club annual Toys for Tots program as the charity that they are going to donate to for the annual Moose Madness competition between SHS and Bonners Ferry High School for four years. The school that raises the most money takes home the Moose Madness antler trophy.

“It is a hoot,” Tom said.

SHS raised $10,600 during the last Moose Madness competition, according to a January letter from the Lions Club published in the Daily Bee.

The competition also has benefits to the school.

The competition “usually brings the school closer together,” as well, according to student councilman Casey Randles.

In addition to the Moose Madness charity competition, SHS students also organized two blood drives, conducted an intra-school food drive and disposable diaper drive for the Bonner Community Food Bank, and raised money for Honor Flight, a program whose goal is to send aging veterans to Washington, D.C., to view war memorials erected in their honor.

The Key Club put together a Christmas tree for the annual Kinderhaven Festival of Trees fund drive.

Students in the Health Occupation Students of America club, a nursing certification program, work in the community twice weekly for half a day during the school year.

Interact Club, a chartered student arm of the Rotary Club, raised $1,000 that was leveraged with matching funds into over $7,000 for the installation of a well in Ecuador. The Honor Society logged 2,631 service hours of service, according to school officials.

“It’s going to be a great opportunity for the community to see what we’re all about,” Haynes said of the parade honor.

So how do parade officials plan to fit all 960 SHS students in the grand marshal’s car during the parade. Well, they don’t, at least at this point. Instead, the school’s contingent for the grand marshal will consist of about 16 different floats and routines. The student council will represent the school, and some may ride in the perennial Grand Marshal convertible, while others carry a banner. The volleyball, dance and cheer teams will perform routines. The school jazz band will perform from a flatbed trailer; another will hold members of the welding class, who will be actively welding as the parade proceeds. Other clubs — Key Club, Interact, Honor Society — will walk with banners. And the football team will be in uniform and chanting.

The 24-member Lions Club is the sponsor of annual Fourth of July celebrations — the kids and grand parade, beach activities at City Beach, and the evening fireworks display. All is free to the community, Dabrowski said.

The Lions also sponsor an annual toys for tots drive, an Easter egg hunt, and a no-cost hearing aid and eyeglasses assistance program that this year provided exams for 1,600 LPOSD students, along with hearing aids and eyeglasses for those in need.

“We just think they deserve it,” Dabrowski said of the SHS student body.

“A lot of times our kids get forgotten and everybody goes, ‘oh those kids today, they don’t do anything.’ We think our high school here is pretty special. That’s why we did it.”