A scratch for schools

Three, two, one, and the teams go wild.

Fingers flew as about 100 school administrators, teachers, PTO members and staff members scratched away at two packs of Scratch Tickets per school, with just five minutes to make the dough.

“It’s always fun,” said Christian McDougall, principal of Timberlake Middle School. “It was awesome.

McDougall said the school is planning to use the money for their associated student body resources and prizes for the kids through their new incentive program.

The 21st annual Scratch for Schools, a program that has returned over $1.4 million to benefit public education in Idaho, took place Thursday night at the Edminister Student Union Building at North Idaho College with 33 North Idaho schools participating.

Lakes and Timberlake middle schools took it to the next level, with their representatives decked out in costume.

“We wanted to bring the fun,” said Jeni Nelson, a seventh grade language arts teacher at Lakes Middle School. “I really like the idea of representing our school and the thing I think makes our school awesome is that we have fun together.”

Nelson and her teammates dressed up as cheerleaders, complete with pompoms and a megaphone.

The Scratch for School is put on by the Idaho Lottery to support public schools. David Workman, Idaho Lottery Public Information Specialist, said the program comes out of their promotional budget that is supported through player play and furthers their mission of benefiting Idaho education.

Tim Rice, a PE teacher at Seltice Elementary School, said his school is planning to use the money for materials they would like to provide for students that aren’t afforded in the regular budget.

“This kind of allows a surplus to let us do extra special things for the kids we even otherwise couldn’t do,” Rice said. “It's a lot of fun to just go at it and be really excited and scratch away and cheer on your teammates.”

Rice said it’s around his eighth time participating in the event, which is more of a workout than he imagined it would be.

Each school was allowed a team of three, two scratchers and a team captain, plus as many cheerleaders as they wanted.

Statewide, over 400 schools are registered in the fundraising event, winning up to $600 per school.

“It’s exciting to win money,” said Denise Edmonds, an associated student body adviser at Post Falls High School. “We have a good time.”

Edmonds said the money they won tonight will go toward the student council to pay for kids trips to a state conference.

Frances Galloway, a teacher's aid at Pinehurst Elementary School, said their principal plans to use some of the money for teacher parties.

The fastest scratching school was Lakes Middle School in Coeur d’Alene who scratched 204 tickets in the five minute round during the first session. In the evening session, Kellogg High School was the fastest scratching school with 166 tickets.

Betty Kiefer Elementary from Rathdrum was the big winner, claiming $647 from the first session, the most in the state this year. Harrison Elementary was the big winner in the evening session, claiming $594 in prizes.

Total prize amounts awarded to the schools was $7,388.

Scratched tickets will be sent back to Boise to get processed, and schools will receive checks in a few weeks.

Around 10,000 tickets were scratched.