Bear River’s agricultural department and cheer team hosted a co-fundraiser on September 13, 2018.

Agriculture Teacher Ms. Perry stated the reason why cheer and FFA partnered together for the fundraiser.

“[There was] no particular reason, the FFA likes to include other clubs in our fundraising,” she said. “This time, we happened to choose cheer.”

Students had a tremendous part in the barbecue.

“We made steaks and [served] beans, bread, cookies, and other desserts,” said Senior Macey Borchert, “We sold tickets, then people would drive in to get their food, and go home and eat.”

“For my job, I basically just managed the inside,” said Sophomore Helen Sands. “We filled cups with beans, and we made sure all of the meals were prepped.”

Senior Jenille Cayton and Junior Sophia Arroyo expressed the cheerleaders’ roles in the fundraiser.

“Cheerleaders had to walk up to the cars and get their tickets from [the customers],” said Cayton. “Then, we walked over to Ms. Perry to [fill their orders] and make it.”

“One of our jobs was to help point people in the right direction,” said Arroyo.

Senior Aidan Smith was a supervisor over other students.

“My job was supervising both of the barbecues, making sure [the steaks] were cooked properly,” he said. “We did have some fallbacks, but in the end, it still worked out pretty good.”

The purpose of the fundraiser was to help the cheer team buy new safety mats, and for FFA to offset some of the cost of sending their Parli Pro team to Nationals. Of course, as with all fundraisers, both teams put some money into savings for the future.

“We recently just bought a new Ag truck,” said Smith. “It will be able to help our chapter a lot, rather than getting a bunch of parents out … We don’t have to waste a bunch of parents’ time.”

Overall, the fundraiser was successful.

“The fundraiser was very successful,” said Sands. “We made over four thousand dollars, a take home profit for just FFA, which is really important because it goes towards things like competitions.”

After the costs of the barbecue were taken out, the profits were split based on the number of tickets sold by both cheer and FFA.

FFA has some more upcoming fundraisers as well.

“We do our Cookhouse fundraiser at every home football game,” said Ms. Perry. “We are doing another Drive Through BBQ in November … probably with a different club or team.”

These two programs, cheer and FFA, allow students to express themselves and participate in activities they love.

“My favorite part about cheer is learning new routines and working on new stunts that are probably hard for us at first, but then we work on it to make it better,” said Cayton.

“[My favorite part of FFA is] the community of it all,” said Borchert. “You learn a lot of really valuable skills like how to prepare for a job interview, or how to build a resume. All the people are great.”

Although Bear River is a small high school, it provides a wide range of activities and clubs for students to get involved in.