As the second semester rolls around at PHS, students gear up to fundraise for the Wyoming Make-A-Wish. The PHS Student Council plans daily events to get students excited and involved.

This year the events started off with the Monday movie night. Students watched “UP” and had dream-worthy popcorn to snack on.

“Watching the movie was really fun,” freshman Alaja Defoe Love said. “I got a big group of friends, and we all brought some food and just hung out, watched the movie, and talked.”

A dodgeball tournament the second day included teams from the school and the Powell police department. 

“My experience with the dodgeball tournament was fun but rough,” School Resource Officer Trevor Carpenter said. “I still see myself as the athletic and competitive 18-year-old. Now, I’m apparently at the age where I’m starting to notice that my spirit is still competitive, but the physical athletic side of me is starting to dwindle.”

Junior class President Audrey Johnson was very pleased with the turnout for this year’s dodgeball tournament. 

“This year we made sure to really lock in on making sure the bracket was perfect and working as well as it possibly could,” Johnson said. “And it ended up going super well. And obviously, people were unhappy but that’s how it goes when you’re going with a free-for-all.”

On Wednesday the activities were limited to the school day. During third period, Student Council members collected change from each classroom, facilitated “Toilet Tag” and wrapped up the week with the teachers raising $700.

“Minute to Win it during 3rd hour brought in $817.03,” Student Council advisor Kaitlin Loeffen said. “With the band winning–they averaged $5.26 per person.”

Throughout the whole week, the dress-up days helped bring excitement for the events to come. This year included Adam Sandler Day, Dream Career Day, Fever Dream Day, Blue and White Day, and Pajama Day.

“I participated in the dream career day; I was a first responder,” sophomore Carson Moore said. “I wore my bunker pants and my traffic vest. I like dressing up for Make-A-Wish Week since it’s for a good cause.”

On Thursday an assembly raised $1,300 for Make-A-Wish with various games such as Red Light Green Light and Hungry Hippos. The students at the assembly bet on who they thought would win. Simon Says, a school-wide game, had some hard competition.

“My favorite part of Make-A-Wish week is probably the assembly,” SRO Carpenter said. “Watching the mini events during the assembly is fun and getting to hear how much money PHS donates is exciting as well.”

The silent auction at the basketball games is always a great way to fundraise, and this year it made $2,185 with local businesses donating baskets full of goodies.

“The silent auction was really successful this year we had a ton of people that were interested in donating,” Student Body President Kinley Cooley said. “Which is super awesome, we had a really great group of people in that committee that were just willing to go above and beyond and get donations from businesses, And businesses even went above and beyond this year, like we had baskets worth upwards of 200 dollars.”

PHS has a history of success with the Make-A-Wish week, raising around $6,700 this year, compared to past years, which raised $10,000 in 2024 and $12,000 in 2023.

“We just were going to try our best and see how much money we could raise,” Cooley said. “And we did better than I thought we were ever gonna so that was nice.”