The Wildcat Way

“The Wildcat Way” is a philanthropic campaign that Student Council is promoting that supports the idea of having everyone at LHS working together as one. The campaign starts with the executive board, but it trickles down to the class councils and the students in order to involve everybody.

“The Wildcat Way lets [the Executive Board] lead and hopefully get the entire school involved,” said executive board president Cam Chen, a junior. “It’s a campaign that supports all of Libertyville High School coming together to try and help around the community.”

The campaign’s slogan, “Leave Your Pawprint,” symbolizes the idea that these charity events will have a lasting effect in the long run. High school has a large impact on those who graduate as they head towards their futures, and Student Council wants the students of LHS to return the favor.

“Our tagline is saying that we want all of LHS to feel like they were involved and had a place in the school,” said executive board school liasion Dolores Palmieri, a junior. “Whether you were involved in a club or not, we just want everyone to feel like you will be remembered for what you did after you graduate. We want people to feel like they’ve left their pawprint.”

The Wildcat Way looks to work not only locally within the school and around Libertyville, but also on a global scale.

“We want to not only give back to our community but also to people who aren’t as fortunate as [those living in Libertyville],” said Palmieri.

Executive board member Joey Pucino, a senior, added: “We’re going to be choosing different charities from around the globe to donate to; for example, Safewater Kenya.Our original idea was to have different initiatives for every month and helping around the community and throughout the world.”

Student Council has completed initiatives such as the blood drive and its canned food drive, which was an outstanding success. The food drive began in October and was promoted heavily throughout the school. According to members on the council, the food drive initiative helped bring in over 10,000 cans.

The blood drive was also a tremendous success. The executive board has passed the duties down to the junior class board. Student Council was very active in promoting the blood drive with the creation of some witty video announcements that were rendered effective thus far.

The most recent and well-known charity event that occurred at LHS was the annual WISH (Wildcat Initiative for Sharing at the Holidays) Project. The basic premise of the campaign is to provide families with gifts for those who can’t afford to purchase any on their own so that they can enjoy the holidays. Although Student Council doesn’t manage the project, they sponsored the event in 2014 and took on a family of their own.

Looking towards the future, Student Council hopes to continue promoting philanthropic campaigns. The upcoming winter dance will have the council very involved in the process of making it as enjoyable for the students as possible.