By Abby Drake
Staff Writer  

Last year was the first year for Coppell High School’s Kids for Kids: Lil Rascals Club to play an active role within the school for their cause. Its second year promises to have a good deal more in store for participants and the school at large.  

Most clubs at CHS raise money for the less-fortunate countries far across the globe, where its impact cannot be seen by Coppell students. The Kids for Kids Club, however, is here to get privileged, teenagers to help local kids in need. 

 Shannon Conrad, president of Kids for Kids: Lil Rascals Club, started the club because she felt that Coppell had enough helping hands in foreign countries and wanted CHS to get involved in a different way.  

“I love kids and I wanted to help out the kids who live around here,” Conrad said. “Even though they live in America doesn’t mean they have a good life.”  

Last year, the club raised funds for Ronald McDonald House (an organization that takes care of families who have children with cancer) by putting on a school-wide competition to see who could raise the most pop tabs off of sodas, energy drinks, and canned goods. They raised thousands of pop tabs and turned them into the Ronald McDonald House, helping raise money for those families in need.  

Although last year’s fundraiser was a success, Conrad wants to go in a different direction this year; she came up with the idea of sponsoring a kid through the Make a Wish Foundation. They have not chosen a child to sponsor, yet but plan to work that out within the next few meetings.  

The club plans to raise money for the child that they are sponsoring by selling t-shirts similar to the ones they made last year, grey V-necks with the club logo on the front, which were popular amongst students.  

“It’s just an idea, but I wanted to raise money for a local kid who is already getting aid from the Make a Wish Foundation,” Conrad said. “It would be easy to come up with the money by selling shirts since everyone seemed to want one last year.”  

The shirts are going to come in several different colors of the same design and will be on sale by club members once the club gets their year started.  

As the sponsor for the club, Coach Clint Rushing selflessly dedicates his time and resources to ensure that Kids for Kids is successful in reaching its goals. He cares about the cause and contributes by writing the club’s announcements, giving up his classroom for meetings and, if needed, requests money from the school.  

“I wanted to be the sponsor for the club, because I wanted to support Shannon and the other students, and I am very excited about the year ahead,” Rushing said.  

The club should get off to a more organized start this year since the officers and sponsor were able to learn a lot from last year’s mistakes. The club officers already have several plans as to how to make this year better.  

First of all, the club wants to gain more members. There were about 25 to 30 students involved last year, but some of them either graduated or lost interest; so now, the numbers are not as strong.  

In order to gain school-wide support, Conrad and Rushing are trying to focus on more effective ways of spreading word about the organization to the school. Along with the club’s active Facebook account, they will make announcements, put up posters, and use word of mouth to get more information to students about the Kids for Kids: Lil Rascals Club and get them excited to join.  

“It is a really great club with an awesome cause,” club Vice President Emily Fowler said. “If more students were involved then we could be even stronger.”  

The Kids for Kids: Lil Rascals Club is a valued part of CHS. Kids helping kids is felt as beautiful by the club members, that more students should be involved in. The club is Coppell students’ gateway into being involved in a noble cause, and members hope more people join and take part in the year ahead.  

“Kids for Kids is an outstanding cause and it is why we are all here, to help people in need,” Rushing said.