To raise awareness for the Ronald McDonald charity, seniors Isabelle Braun and Kallie Leiker created a pull tab collection competition between regional high schools.

“We wanted to create something that the high school could have fun with and be able to help others, as well,” Braun said. “We competed against Great Bend, so that rivalry between Hays High and Great Bend was what we wanted to focus on.”

Braun said she does not know if they did not focus hard enough, but the competition was lost to Lacrosse.

Hays High collected a total of 104 pounds of pull tabs. Great Bend collected 166.6 pounds, Plainville collected 52.1 pounds, and Lacrosse collected 78.2 pounds.

Lacrosse won the weight per student ratio, with Plainville second, Great Bend third and Hays fourth.

The competition lasted from the beginning of October to Dec. 14.

“The winning school would be receiving a $1,000 donation,” Braun said. “Kallie and I have someone sponsoring.”

The seniors decided to split up the competition at Hays High by putting pull tab buckets in each seminar.

“We weren’t getting enough participation, so we partnered with StuCo to focus on the seminars,” Braun said.

The winning seminars, Dinkel, Brooks and Deenihan have a choice between shirts, donuts or cookies.

“We weighed the pull tabs and divided it by the number of students, so we could find on average how many pounds each person brought,” Braun said. “That is how we determined the winning school.”

The winner of the competition was released before Christmas break began. Over break, Braun and Leiker decided how they wanted to present the money to Lacrosse.

“We talked to Mrs. Keuhl, our sponsor, and we decided that maybe they would want a presentation because it’s a pretty big deal winning $1,000 for their StuCo,” Braun said.

Braun and Leiker contacted the StuCo advisor of Lacrosse to ask how they would want them to present the money.

“She said we could do whatever would work best for us, but we decided we should go down there since it’s a gift to them,” Braun said. “We’re going to take our sponsor and Deena Rupp of McDonalds down to present them with the check.”

20ahillebrand@usd489.com

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