Veterans benefit from Chi-Hi ribbon sale

Students plowing through the doors of Chippewa Falls High School Friday morning couldn’t get by without hearing pleas from their cohorts standing behind tables lined with patriotic ribbons.

“Help your local veterans,” one would yell to her classmates. “All it takes is a penny,” shouted another.

Chi-Hi organizations including the American Club, the Apollo Club and the Flags for the Fallen History Travel Team set up stations at the main, Cardinal and staff entrances before 7:30 a.m. About 50 club members were involved in setting up the event that took any donations in exchange for ribbons.

About a dozen students manned the stations early Friday morning. “Why not?” asked Chi-Hi sophomore and American Club member Gwenyth Griggs. “We don’t mind getting here early for a good cause.”

Before Friday, members of the Apollo Club folded red, white and blue ribbons into bows and secured with pins. The students were then selling the pins to teachers, students and staff for open donations.

“With (the anniversary of) Pearl Harbor coming up, this is a way to help commemorate that and all veterans in all wars,” said American Club member and freshman Collin Prill.

The donations will go towards helping local veterans. Last year was the first year of the event, where the students collected $520 that was donated to the Wisconsin Veterans Home in Chippewa Falls.

That money was put into the facility’s recreation fund.

“It’s really a unique thing we’re doing,” said freshman Grace Bebeau, another member of the American Club. “We’re helping out in our way.”

By 8:15 a.m., the American Club was already pulling from last year’s supply to fill the need.

“It surprised me how many donated,” said Christian Hickethler, a freshman member of the American Club and son of a Navy veteran. “It’s more than I expected.”

The American Club is an organization of students led by Todd Kornack, a Chi-Hi history teacher. The group is in the midst of several projects, including interviewing war veterans and exhibiting their findings at the Chippewa Valley Museum, completing a genealogical research project to be shown at Irvine Park and starting an American Club at Chippewa Falls Middle School.

Chi-Hi’s Flags for the Fallen History Travel Team, advised by history teacher John Kinville, also researches Chi-Hi graduates whose lives were lost while serving. The group fundraises throughout the school year and in June visits military sites to honor the veterans by placing U.S. flags at the gravesites.

Friday, the students also handed out a list of graduates from Chi-Hi who died in service. Kinville prepared the list of 39 names.

Griggs said the students at Chi-Hi respond well to events that support good causes.

“I hope that future events are as successful as this one,” she said.