By Lisa Carolin
The Second Annual Cherry Bowl Basketball game proved to be a comeback for the Saline High School team. Chelsea won last year at Saline but this year Saline dominated with a 38-25 victory in Chelsea.
The game was played on March 3 for the schools’ Special Education Departments. It was established in honor of Curt Cherry, a Special Olympian who attended both school districts. Cherry recently lost his battle with cancer.
During half-time, Chelsea High School teacher Art Finger‘s students from the Academic Learning Lab presented a check for Chelsea’s Special Olympians. They raised $1,000 doing a pop can drive.
“The Academic Learning Lab is a class of Chelsea High School that assists at-risk students academically, personally, and emotionally,” said Finger. “Speaking for the students, they would each have their own description of what the Academic Learning Lab is to them. It’s community to them.”
The fundraiser is the result of the students in the Learning Lab choosing to help the school’s Special Olympians.
“Each trimester the kids decide what type of community service activity they would like to do,” said Finger. “In the past, we’ve done canned food drives for Faith in Action, winter coats, hats, gloves and clothing drives for Faith in Action, “Toys for Tots,” and many others. It’s a way for our students to help others.”
Finger says that some students in the Learning Lab have received services from the agencies for which they’ve done fundraisers.
“They understand, and I’m so proud of these students,” said Finger. “Any time we have set a goal for helping others, my students exceed the goal. Our goal was to raise $500 to support our Special Olympians to cover unforeseen expenses such as meals, uniforms, shoes, and more. The students raised over $1,000 in under two months through the can drive and monetary donations.”
In Cherry’s honor, the game will continue as an annual event and be held in Saline next year.
