After Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast, people around the nation made an effort to give back to those in need in any way, shape or form. Coppell High School has been raising money to help those hurt by the natural disaster and is encouraging others to do the same.

“Our job is to serve first,” CHS Principal Dr. Nicole Jund said. “We have to be servants in our communities; we have to be there to help our neighbors.”

On Aug. 30, Dr. Jund called senior National Honors Society members, Student Council members and Red Jackets into the main hallway from their classes to help in creating a video challenging Marcus High School and Hebron High School Ninth Grade Center to raise $1 per student for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The Coppell High School Twitter posted the video, and both schools accepted the challenge.

The fundraising efforts began to spread throughout the area. Marcus High School challenged Argyle High School and Hebron High School challenged Lewisville High School. The challenge continues to pass from school to school.

With the goal of raising $20,000, CHS has been providing opportunities for students and staff to donate to the cause.

Buckets have been placed around the school and passed out during lunches for students to donate money to. The buckets can be found at the horseshoe, the stage in the lunchroom and in the back commons. Money was also collected at the CHS football game on Friday against McKinney Boyd.

Additionally, CHS has designed shirts for students and staff to purchase. The shirts cost $10 and 100 percent of the proceeds go towards those in need in the Houston area.

Last Thursday, the shirts went on sale during lunch, and immediately proved to be a success. The first batch of 1,000 sold out that same day. T-shirts sales will continue this week.

“In Coppell, we love T-shirts,” CHS Red Jackets sponsor Aylor Rix said. “I feel like everyone buys and sells T-shirts for different events.”

CISD elementary and middle schools have followed suit, picking up the shirts to sell to their students as well. T-shirts can also be ordered online, and buyers will be sent an email detailing the T-shirt pick-up time and location.

“[Selling T-shirts] is a very visible model for a unified approach to something that is important to our community and it’s important to our state,” Jund said. “This was something that we could do very easily, we had the means to do, [and] that could unify not just our campus, but also our entire community around a symbol that really is unique to Coppell High school [and] to the Coppell community.”

Being in such close proximity to the hurricane, raising money has proved to be a valuable lesson for the student body.

“It’s teaching students that bad things happen and it could be you,” Rix said. “It’s hitting home because it [happened] in Texas, so it shows us that we need to work together for the better good.”

CISD is also currently exploring donating proceeds to a Houston area school in need.

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