KSD celebrates community with Brawl for All

KELLOGG — Purple and Gold spirit was on full display last week during the Kellogg School District’s Brawl for All spirit celebration.

Due to the holiday spike of positive cases of COVID-19, the district was unable to hold its annual Brawl for the Ball spirit week with St. Maries High School, and with much of the regular competition surrounding acts of community and charity it was important that the show still went on.

“When we found out we wouldn't be able to do our annual Brawl for the Ball competition with St. Maries this year, we knew we still wanted to do something that would give back to the community and help lift school spirit at KHS,” said Kellogg High School leadership instructor Kelton Enich. “We came up with Brawl for All."

The Brawl for All included as much of the traditional activities as possible including themed dress-up days, a pep assembly and a food drive.

“We held the food drive for about a month and collectively were able to raise 6,832 pounds of non-perishable foods and toiletry items for local food banks,” Enich said. “Considering, we didn't have as much hype surrounding the food drive as a normal Brawl year, we were really impressed that we were able to raise as much food as we did to give back to the community.”

At the middle school level participation was high, even in incidents where it was unexpected.

Something that touched the school’s staff.

“The kindness and giving nature of our students most in need really stood out,” said KMS teacher Allison Frazier. “There were many times when I knew that a student may not be going home to a full pantry, and yet they would be the ones who fulfilled an item on the list we needed.”

All of the schools in the district got in on the donating, including an impressive 2,000 pounds coming from the students at Pinehurst Elementary.

The entire event was organized by Enich’s leadership class students who also made sure that they went out of their way to spread as much positivity as possible — something Enich was incredibly proud of in light of the current climate of the world.

“Although this year certainly has been challenging, I am so proud of my leadership students for thinking outside the box to safely organize these school activities,” Enich said. “My students worked above and beyond to pull this week of festivities off, and they did so while upholding all safety protocols. This group of kids are resilient, flexible and true leaders of the building. A silver-lining of this entire pandemic is watching my students overcome challenges and work creatively to continue to uphold Wildcat Spirit. I am so proud of them.”