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Moffat County High School wins $25,000

Lauren Blair
Moffat County High School Principal Kelly McCormick piques students interest Tuesday afternoon before revealing to them that the school won $25,000 as part of the Celebrate My Drive campaign, a nationwide contest organized by State Farm Insurance Agency.
Lauren Blair

— Moffat County High School students learned today that their school was the recipient of a $25,000 grant from the Celebrate My Drive campaign by State Farm Insurance.

MCHS was the only school in Colorado to make the top 100.

The school was one of 3,283 schools across the nation that participated in the campaign in mid-October. The top 100 schools with the highest number of online votes over a 10-day period won $25,000 grants, with the top 10 winning $100,000 each.



MCHS Principal Kelly McCormick called students together for an assembly Tuesday afternoon to deliver the good news, but only gave them random numbers to stir their curiosity until the announcement was revealed at the very end.

One of those numbers he presented was 3 percent, representing the percentage of participating schools that actually walked away with a prize.



“I was excited,” said sophomore Alex Hamilton. “I was kind of shocked actually. We were up in the beginning (of the campaign)… but then we kind of fell back, so I didn’t know if we were going to win.”

The extra money will help the school.

“It’s cool because our school really needs it,” said senior Katelyn Peroulis. “I think a lot of people in the community voted for us.”

McCormick said that the school plans to organize a committee of students, faculty, staff and business leaders in the community to decide how to allocate the money.

“I want to spread it out so it can benefit as many kids as possible,” McCormick said. “One of my parameters is to spend that money within the community as much as possible.”

Ten percent of the prize money must be allocated to teen safe driving programs, which McCormick said may go towards providing scholarships for students who can’t otherwise afford to take driver’s education courses.

Local State Farm agent Bob Johnson was an instrumental part of the success of the campaign, encouraging community members to vote and asking local business like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut to publicize the campaign on their marquees.

Johnson explained that the purpose of the campaign was to help spread the word to teens about practicing safe driving habits.

“We found that 50 percent of schools and families in the U.S. were not having conversations about safe driving,” Johnson said. “I think the whole idea of this thing is not try to scare kids with grim statistics but to use positive and educational information that can drive very positive results related to student driver safety.”

All 100 winners will be announced to the general public by State Farm on Monday. The $25,000 check will be presented at a community celebration at MCHS at 3 p.m. on Dec. 17.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Johnson said. “I think it’s… an exciting achievement for Moffat County High School.”

Contact Lauren Blair at 970-875-1794 or lblair@CraigDailyPress.com or follow her on Twitter @CDP_Education.


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