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Spirit shop renovation a boost for Big Blue

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10:13 PM Sunday, November 13, 2011

By Richard O Jones

Staff Writer

HAMILTON — The renovation of the Hamilton High School cafeteria gave the Hamilton High School Boosters to open up a spirit shop to hawk HHS clothing and trinkets.

The shop is open daily from 11 a.m. until 12:45 p.m., manned mostly by Booster volunteers, but on Tuesdays, operations are handed over to students in the Multiple Disability class to give them job experience, according to sign language translator Connie Carr.

“This helps teach them how to function in the workplace,” Carr said. “They take orders, run the register, fold and hang the clothes, and practice their math skills by making change.

“They also get to practice their interactions with other students and adults,” said Education Assistant Jon Hyde.

According to Boosters President Anna Harvey, having a dedicated space has been a windfall for the Boosters.

“Before the shop opened in August, we had a small space and had to pull everything out of a closet and lay it out on a table,” she said. “But this has really increased our sales because people can come in and see things they didn’t know they wanted to buy.”

The spirit shop will be open Saturday during the Boosters’ Fall Craft Sale, the group’s biggest fundraising event of the school year. The $1 admission for people 12 and older will be donated to the Shared Harvest Food Bank, Harvey said.

The Hamilton High School Boosters contributes around $40,000 a year to provide things the district cannot budget for the high school and freshman school, Harvey said. The Boosters recently purchased warm-up suits for the boys’ basketball team and warm-up jackets for the gymnastics team.

Teachers and administrators can fill out a form that details “what they want, how much it will cost and how many people it will reach,” Harvey said. The boosters’ executive board reviews the requests, and makes the allocation, but Harvey said that they have never turned down a request for funds.

“We will not pay a kid’s pay-to-play or for trips unless we feel it’s beneficial to the school,” she said. “But if a kid goes to state for a sport or other activity that they’ve earned the right to go to, and if their parent is a booster member, we give them $20 or $25 spending money, but that’s the only time we pay for any individual.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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