Local sponsors help increase school spirit

School is a process of educating, discovering and developing. School spirit, while not directly incorporated in the learning process, is an important asset in Lind-Ritzville High School (LRHS) classrooms.

The more school spirit students have, the more enthused they are to be a Bronco and support all of the values that the Bronco represents: passion, pride, respect, responsibility, determination and discipline.

For the last five years, local businesses have sponsored school wide Bronco pep club shirts, providing funds for each student in LRHS to receive a free shirt at the beginning of the year.

While the cost of the shirts may be monetary, the improved school spirit they provide is priceless.

Local businesses who sponsored the pep club shirts for the 2015/16 school year include East Adams Rural Healthcare; Ritzville Warehouse Company, Odessa Trading Company and Ag Tech Services; York Construction; Les Schwab Tires; Leffel, Otis and Warwick, P.S .; Essential Massage; The Hair Center; Carpenter, McGuire and DeWulf, P.S .; McGregor; U.S. Bank; Ritzville Roadhouse; Ritz Food Mart; Zip’s Drive-In; Evergreen Implement; Jake’s Café and Texaco; Wheatland Waste Systems Inc .; and Adam’s Automotive.

Since 2011, local businesses have sponsored the school wide distribution of shirts.

The purpose, Donna Koch, Associated Student Body (ASB) advisor, explained, “was to provide every student at the high school with a Bronco shirt. Prior to that, students had to pay about $10 for a shirt and not every student could afford that.”

Koch continued, “Now everyone has a shirt and we can do activities with everyone wearing their Bronco shirts without being exclusionary. Sprague High School also orders shirts for their staff and students but without our ads.”

The shirts contribute to the unity of the school.

Angalina Boettcher said, “[the] shirts help create a visual cohesiveness that is vital to building school spirit. School spirit creates an environment of support, belonging and excitement.”

Not only students, but also staff, were given pep club shirts this year due to the increased donations compared to last year.

Koch explained, “Because of the generosity of our local businesses, this year nine through twelfth grade students, school board members, and all staff members including maintenance, bus drivers, para-

, office staff, and teachers in both Lind and Ritzville received a shirt.”

“The shirts allow students to be part of the whole and show off their pride at being an LRS Bronco,” Boettcher added. “This pride helps motivate students to represent our communities in a positive manner.”

Students are thankful for the shirts as well.

Travis Ste. Marie said, “[The shirts] influence school spirit because it gives everyone something spirited to wear, and when everyone is wearing the same thing it just looks pretty cool.”

To the sponsors, Ste. Marie said, “Thank you… It’s really cool that they do [this] so that everyone has the opportunity to have Bronco gear to support our awesome teams.”

Madison Harder agreed: “The shirts bring the student body together and ignites pride in our school by having access to Bronco apparel.

“We really appreciate the opportunity to provide our students with shirts at no cost.”

TyAnn Tellefson added that whether the students sport their shirts for games or for Bronco Fridays, “wearing the Bronco emblem really increases [overall] school spirit.”

Furthermore, Koch said, “Thank you also to Kathy McAnally for all her work selling the ads and ordering the shirts.

She takes care of everything and the ASB just distributes the shirts and thanks the businesses.”

Boettcher extended “a huge thank you to the sponsors of the shirts. It is an important part of our back to school activities and positively impacts the high school.”