FSMS looking for community support

A group of students at Fort Scott Middle School pose for a photograph to promote the school's involvement in the U.S. Cellular Calling All Communities $1 million campaign. The school, which recently made it onto the list of top 100 schools in the campaign, is trying to get enough votes to become one of 10 schools that will win $100,000.
(Submitted photo)

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FSMS recently received enough votes to make it into the list of top 100 schools in U.S. Cellular's Calling All Communities $1 million campaign, which runs through Jan. 15, 2010.

"This is really great, especially if the community gets behind it," FSMS Principal Barbara Albright said.

In the campaign, which began Nov. 13, communities can rally around their favorite schools in an effort to allow the school an opportunity to hopefully share $1 million. The 10 schools with the most votes will win $100,000 each to use however they choose.

"We believe educating our kids has never been more of a priority," a statement from U.S. Cellular said. "That's why we're out to support the cause by giving schools money to use toward whatever they feel is important. Big, small, public, private, primary, middle and high schools -- they're all eligible."

Mounting excitement inspired U.S. Cellular to take an unprecedented measure and release standings for the top 100 schools instead of the usual top 20, the company statement said.

"We thought it would be fun to do something different and share this extended list," Dorsey Ragland, the director of sales for U.S. Cellular in Kansas, said. "We understand that schools want to know what it takes to win, and it's still anybody's game."

The top 100 represents a great start in gathering community support while outpacing 4,400-plus schools who share in the 56,000 votes cast. It takes about 100 votes for a school to break into the top 100. Another 100 votes lands the school in the top 50, and it takes about 1,000 votes to land in the coveted top 10, the statement said.

As of Tuesday, FSMS ranks 74th and several other schools are running strong campaigns in Kansas, including Haven High School in Haven, which is currently ranked 46th, and Concordia High School in Concordia, which ranks 84th, officials said.

Albright said she learned more about the campaign last month, and then shared the information with the Very Involved Parents organization at FSMS, a group that is working to promote FSMS during the campaign.

"We thought it was doable," she said. "We got a committee together of parents and teachers from FSMS. We're working to get the word out to as many people, friends and family as we can."

The school's campaign is currently being communicated and promoted through e-mail messages, flyers, the school bulletin, programs at school intramural activities, area organizations and chamber events, area grocery stores, and even Facebook, the popular Internet social networking Web site. Teachers at the school have also been talking to students to remind them to tell their family and friends about the campaign in order to get votes for the school, Albright said.

The money could be very useful to FSMS should the school become one of the $100,000 prize winners, Albright said.

"We have lots of needs," she said. "2010 is coming up. Technology is huge ... There are also these budget cuts with the state."

The VIP organization at FSMS is encouraging anyone who is at least 18 years of age to visit any U.S. Cellular store to pick up a voting code, and each code can be used only once. K-12 schools of all sizes, public, private, urban and rural, have a chance to become a winner in the campaign. Winning schools will be announced in February 2010.

Local residents may vote at one of three area locations; cp Communications, 300 E. 23rd St., Fort Scott, Central Communications, 2 N. National Ave., Fort Scott, or cp Communications, 2400 N. Broadway, Pittsburg.

With about a month left in the campaign and more votes being cast daily, the top 100 list is only a temporary indicator. Rankings can change quickly. In last year's program, two of the winning schools had never appeared in the top 20, the statement from U.S. Cellular said.

"Seeing all these schools representing so many different communities is fantastic," U.S. Cellular Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Jeff Childs said. "We encourage them to keep working hard to get those votes. Schools still have plent of time to get family and friends involved and become a champion."

U.S. Cellular plans to share the top 100 schools list one more time before the end of the campaign. Updates are posted weekly at participating U.S. Cellular stores, online at www.uscellular.com/callingallcommunities, and on U.S. Cellular's Facebook page.