Libertyville Stands Together

During the fall, a player on the LHS football team’s family was having financial problems. The rest of the team took notice and wanted to do something to raise money for them. Just months later, they have created something far bigger than they could have imagined.

The idea the football team had was to create a t-shirt that they could sell to students and members of the community, and give the proceeds to this family. When they approached Student Council for help coordinating the t-shirt design and printing process, Student Council liked the idea from the start but said that they could not do the whole t-shirt fundraiser if it just benefitted one family.

Instead, with the help from Mrs. Andrea Lara and Jennifer Neumann, Student Council came up with a long-sleeve t-shirt that said “Stand Together” on the front where part of the proceeds would go to the family in need and the rest of the money would go to the newly created Wildcat Fund. The Wildcat Fund was created to help families at Libertyville High School who are in tougher financial situations.

“The fund can be used for intramurals or Prom [if a kid and his family don’t have the money for it],” Mrs. Lara said. “It is anonymous; the student goes to his social worker. Only they will know about it.”

That first wave of shirts sold out without a problem to members of the football team and students at school. After the first set was gone, there was talk about getting another batch of shirts in, so head of the Parent Cats, Jeff McClurg, said that the organization would be happy to sell them at the spirit store.

About the same time the Parent Cats started getting involved with another set of shirts to be sold at the spirit store, a series of tragedies hit Libertyville. Most students, parents, teachers, or community members were touched in some way, and the Stand Together T-shirts started to take on a different meaning. After the problems arose, senior football player Jake Mansfield suggested to Offensive Coordinator Chris Davis to add “family” to the sleeve of the shirt. Family had been a theme for the team all year, and adding “family” to “Stand Together” was their way of really emphasizing it.

“I think it really started to become something special once the season started and then what we were able to do as a team and community to help out,” Mansfield said. “It changed ‘family’ from a motto into a way of life because it expanded from just our team to the entire town of Libertyville.”

The t-shirts sold like crazy once the spirit store got them in stock. Again priced at $10 apiece, the shirt was affordable for nearly anybody who wanted it. After this wave sold out, sales went over $1,000 for the shirt campaign in total according to Mrs. Lara.

Taking off with the added meaning, parents and members of the community started to come into the spirit store just to buy the shirt. Parents of graduates and graduates themselves were buying shirts, and now a very large part of Libertyville High School and its community are showing support for their families by wearing their stand together shirt.