Senior class holds drawing that gives away Macbooks and iPods as fundraiser

Morning announcements were being concluded May 22, and most students in Kelly Frangieh's math class were listening as a string of numbers were called in a drawing for new MacBook computers. With his ticket in front of him, senior Grant Thomas realized his number was called. Thomas jumped up and yelled that he won. The rest of the math class stared in awe, thinking he was playing around. But Thomas knew better as he ran down to the office to pick up his prize.

With the price of senior prom bids looking to be over $100 because of money woes, the senior class was in desperate need of more funds and came up with the idea of an opportunity drawing fundraiser during the week of March 15—in large part because of an anonymous donor.

During the entire week, the senior class raffled off more than 20 prizes, consisting of five Macbooks, five iPod Touches, five iPod Nanos and five iPod Shuffles. Tickets were sold for $2 each or $5 for three tickets. According to senior class representative Sara Knysh, the fundraiser overall raised about $3,000, decreasing bids by $10.

The donor approached class officers about assisting the effort to fund various activities such as prom. The donor met with the senior class representatives to brainstorm ideas until they finally settled on an opportunity drawing. Tickets were sold during the span of the week. The money from the fundraiser will help lower the price for senior prom bids.

•The winners of the iPod shuffles were junior Jamie Gee, sophomore Penny Burgess, senior Trevor Teerlink, senior Maggie Lin and senior Annie Lee.

• Freshman David Ball, Spanish teacher Arnaldo Rodriguex, senior Madeline Rothenberg, senior Alexa Francis and senior Connie Chiou won iPod nanos.

• Winners of the iPod touches were senior Patrick Lee, junior Clarence Le, senior Steven Sung, freshman Koosha Amini and freshman Alyson Nilan-Axline.

• The other four winners of the most coveted prize—the MacBooks—were junior Leah Capek, senior David Su, sophomore Megan Benzing and freshman Pranav Prabhakar.

"In my four years at SHS I've never heard of any fundraiser that has excited and intrigued both students and staff members alike," said senior class treasurer Ameeka Shenoy. "This is a fundraiser that anyone at SHS can take part in, and the prizes are beyond anything I've ever seen at SHS before."