When most people think of fundraisers, there’s a set list of ideas that come to mind first. Chocolate bars, car washes, candle sales, and cookie dough packages are the standards that help many student organizations fund their season.
Less often, however, teams will rely on things like ticket sales to help them reach a fundraising goal. Sometimes they’ll host a benefit or a silent auction to help them get what they need. It can be a lot of work, but it helps get the job done.
For one CISD group, the above mentioned fundraising tactics weren’t ideal for their needs. Instead, they took on a major task: hosting a giant competition.
On Saturday, December 2, 24 schools from across the state traveled to Connally to participate in an invitational UIL academic and speech/debate competition. The tournament served as a major fundraising opportunity for the Connally ISD UIL Academic program.
“I’ve worked to find effective ways to raise money to send our students to debate and UIL camps every year that I’ve been here,” CHS UIL Coordinator Harley Hammett (Gervais) said. “Our district provides us with awesome financial support, but sometimes you just need a little extra help. Hosting this meet will help us get that extra help to take our program to the next level.”
Connally was known for hosting large, impressive invitational tournaments in the 1970s and 80s. Over the years, the district stopped putting on the events. This December’s meet shows the district’s commitment to bringing back its reputation as a tournament that schools want to attend.
“Putting on an event of this scale can be very difficult,” CISD Director of UIL Academics Michael Donaldson said. “It takes a lot of moving parts, the ability to adjust on the fly, and a ton of support from students and staff to make it possible. I was blown away by how smoothly everything went.”
Donaldson began recruiting schools to attend the tournament over the summer at the UIL’s annual Capital Conference in Austin. Connally’s centralized location made it an ideal spot for schools from all throughout the state to travel to.
“Our location right between Austin and Dallas is of huge benefit to us,” Donaldson said. “Ironically, the Waco-area doesn’t have many competitive opportunities for our own schools. In that regard, this tournament was not just a matter of convenience for schools hours away from us, but also for those just down the road.”
Local schools in attendance included China Spring, Waco, and Midway. Outside of them, other familiar names included Salado, Lampasas, and Mexia - all of whom Connally regularly competes with in UIL academic and speech competitions.
“As the UIL coordinator for a fellow 4A school, I travel all over the state - and the Connally Invitational was one of the most fun, well-run tournaments we’ve found,” Lampasas High School UIL Coordinator Judith Ann McGhee said. “The directors and Connally staff made us feel welcome and were excellent hosts. We will DEFINITELY be back next year.”
Schools began arriving at the campus as early as 7:15 in the morning. Competitions officially began at 8:00 and lasted until almost 7:30 that night. Since the high school theatre department had two performances of “Elf the Musical” set for the same day, the UIL tournament took place at the Connally Junior High campus.
“I cannot possibly show enough gratitude to the junior high administration team and teachers for letting us use their building,” Donaldson said. “It was the perfect size for our event. All of the schools there complimented how clean it was, how nice it looked, and how inviting of a space it was. I think their building really showed off some of the great things going on at Connally ISD.”
While Mr. Donaldson and Mrs. Hammett worked with the hired tabulation staff to run the logistics of the day, faculty volunteers from throughout the district helped facilitate the event by assisting as contest directors, graders, and expert navigators to help each of the attendees find what they needed.
“I was pleasantly surprised to see various faces from ALL of our campuses to help make the day successful,” CISD Superintendent Jill Bottelberghe said. “I appreciate everyone who was willing to step up and sacrifice their Saturday to assist with this event.”
Connally students got the opportunity to represent their own program by participating in individual contests throughout the day. While CHS did not enter every event, they showed impressive results in those that they did compete in. The highlight of the day came from the school’s performance in Editorial Writing - CHS swept the top three placements.
“I loved getting the chance to be on the other side of the competition,” CHS sophomore Jocelyn Castillo said. “It was so exciting to be able to start this season off by winning my event. I had a good freshman year, but I think that this shows that we can do really well as a team this time around.”
By the time that the lights in the building were turned off and the doors were all locked, the average onlooker would not have recognized how much work went into the day. The results were much more apparent to the CHS UIL team, however.
“We were able to raise almost $4000.00 for our UIL program,” CHS Principal Hermann Pereira said. “That’s money that can help our students and coaches as they set their goals higher and higher throughout the year. Even better than that, our kids got to show off our district to all of the people who attended the competition. Everyone got to see what the Cadet Standard is all about.”
CHS UIL will host another tournament on Saturday, January 13. Mrs. Hammett hopes that the contest will be even bigger and better than this past Saturday’s.
“We’ve proven that we know what we’re doing,” Hammett said. “I can’t wait to see what all we accomplish as these tournaments grow. It provides our students with some amazing opportunities and helps put our program on the map right where it belongs.”