Walls Class Councils Take Different Approaches to Fundraising

At Walls, each grade’s class councils plays a vital role in organizing fundraisers for school events such as dances and class activities. Each class is responsible for raising money for their prom and the junior class is required to fundraise and plan the Spring Fling dance. With such a heavy lift, students on each council approach the challenging task differently. 

The senior class has found success in focusing on interacting with the community as much as possible. Kwabena Tyus (‘25), the senior class treasurer explained, “we try to make our fundraising as fun as possible so that people stay engaged and are excited about contributing to our class.” Tyus added that “we also try to reach out to other students in our grade to make it more inclusive.”  

For the senior class, fundraisers of the interactive nature Tyus described often entail direct communication with the school community at large. Senior Lexi Padre (‘25), for example, recounted a fundraising event from Valentine’s Day last year when the senior class was selling “singing grams” that students could pay to have “delivered” to anyone else in the school. “The singing grams were so fun because we got to see people’s excitement. Even if the singing gram was purchased for someone else, everybody in the class found some joy in it,” Padre explained. 

Many seniors relish the opportunity to use fundraising as a mode of interacting with the community at large. In events like the singing grams, for example, many students, not just council members, work together to raise funds. Charlie Cole (‘25) shared that, “I  love how our class doesn’t limit fundraising to the class officers, it makes it more fun for everyone I think.”

For other councils, fundraising can feel like more of a burden than an exciting, interactive event. Declan Chada (‘26), the junior class activities officer, shared that, “We had a pajama pants fundraiser with purple plaid and we sold a lot of them, unfortunately, you can only do that so many times.” After all, for many council members, they see their jobs as more about planning school wide events than wrangling with budgets. “The whole class council is incredibly excited to plan Spring Fling because it gives us an opportunity to do something very nice and fun for the whole school,” Chada said. 

While upperclassmen are often focused on fundraising for big, milestone events from Spring Fling to graduation, class councils also take on smaller tasks, especially in freshman and sophomore years. For example, each year around homecoming season each class decorates  a hallway in a schoolwide competition. Raising funds for that project is often the first fundraising task of freshmen and sophomore councils. 

Emma Levine (‘27), a member of the sophomore class council explained that last year,  “the sophomore class council started off fundraising with a lemonade stand in hopes to raise money for the hallway decorations.” These smaller and grade wide events foster the school community and fundraising can help make these occasions like hallway decorating more engaging for council members and the student body at large as it allows students to watch their projects grow from idea to final product. 

Though the class of 2028 has yet to establish a council, Freshman counselor Kathryn Moore said that she’s “really excited to get started and do it all over again.”