Millions of people visit Leavenworth each year. Many of them come during the popular “Village of Lights” event put on by the city from November 28 to February 28. During this festival, and Oktoberfest, finding parking in town is in high demand. The recent closure of additional roads downtown to accommodate additional foot traffic made parking even more difficult to find.
While many locals lament the influx of tourists and difficulty in parking, Cascade High School Boosters, the parents in charge of Senior Sober, the ASB, and the band program have all found ways to make the most of the situation. With cooperation from the city, these vital CHS programs help to park cars downtown and, in turn, earn profits.
The CHS band parks cars and busses in four lots: Cashmere Valley Bank, Alpine Lakes Elementary School, Osborn Elementary, and Cascade High School. They charge twenty dollars to park in these lots and, over four weekends in December, raise enough money to fund – almost – the entire band program.
ASB parks cars in the library and pool parking lots. They run these lots for two weekends in December and each graduating class runs one day. This year, the seniors ran December 7, the sophomores ran December 8, the juniors ran December 14, and the freshmen ran December 15. Each class splits the money 40/60 with ASB. This year, in keeping with rates being charged by the city to park downtown, they charged forty dollars for parking.
ASB raised $7,812.30 over the two weekends of parking.
This fundraiser is the biggest fundraiser of the year. ASB uses the money raised to support many events at the school: Flex Fun days, concessions, assemblies, etc. Graduating classes use their money to host Homecoming and Prom and to, ultimately, fund their senior trips. This year, ASB raised $7,812.30 over the two weekends of parking. This is in addition to what each graduating class raised.
The dates each class will work on are determined at an ASB meeting. After coordination with the city, the dates are determined. ASB meets and each class picks the day they would like to work. The seniors pick first, the juniors pick second, sophomores and freshmen pick next. Typically, the juniors and seniors pick Saturdays as the traffic is heavier and income is better on these days.
This year, the seniors made $3,858; the juniors made $3,540; the sophomores made $2,388; and the freshmen made $1,932.60.
“It was super cold yet super fun. I had fun hanging out with my friends and helping out our junior class raise money for our senior trip and our prom. I did all my shifts at the library and City Hall,” said Breigh Ragsdale (11).
Boosters and Senior Sober parents operate on a similar basis and the money raised goes to support Senior Sober and athletic teams respectively.
“From the outside, it might look easy to run parking, but it involves a lot of logistics,” explained Leadership teacher Ms. Robison. “Each spot must have a supervising adult and student, ideally two, to run smoothly. This involves extensive effort at soliciting volunteers. Once the event is running, there are supplies to organize and there are always last-minute issues to deal with.”
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