By Jason Emerson
Students in Cazenovia High School sports and entertainment marketing classes last week raised hundreds of dollars for local families through a class-created district-wide dodgeball tournament, held on Dec. 6.
The tournament pitted 17 teams against each other — teams of district administrators, staff, teachers, students and community members — with the winning team, “The Avengers,” walking out with a trophy.
CHS sports marketing students have been holding badminton fundraising tournaments for the past decade, but last year they sent a survey around the high school and students chose to change it to a dodgeball tournament.
Students in grades 9 to 12 spent about two weeks doing all the planning, sales, marketing, publicity and budgeting for the event, allowing them to learn event planning in a real-life platform.
Although final figures were not available as of press time, last year’s total of $300 is expected to be surpassed, with a hopeful total of around $500 said business teacher Christina New, who teaches all eight business classes in the high school.
Last year’s event was such a success and so much fun that the crowd and the number of teams competing this year increased dramatically, said New.
“The class did an amazing job,” New said. “We are so lucky to live in such a supportive community. It’s overwhelming the level of participation and support we received.”
New also gave a “shout out” to the Cazenovia highway department, which entered a team in the competition and made it to the final match. The tournament is open to community members but most people probably do not realize it, New said. “Next year we going to work for more community participation outside of the district,” she said.
Admission to the tournament was $2. There were also raffle items, concessions and student-designed T-shirts for sale. All profits from the event will be donated to CazCares.
