RHS fundraiser asks community to remember

As part of a new Remembrance Tree program, the Ronan High School Student Council is selling bulbs to be placed on trees in order to commemorate loved ones passed away or those serving in the military. The loved ones will be honored at a lighting ceremony on Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. at the Ronan Visitor’s Center on U.S. Highway 93.

The Council hopes to fill three trees with bulbs, two to remember those passed on and one for those who are serving in the Armed Forces, according to Student Council Advisor Marlena Jensen.

The bulbs are being sold for $5 until Dec. 5. The trees will be lit at the ceremony as the names are read by a family member or member of the student council. All members of the community are invited to attend and refreshments will be served.

The trees will shine brightly until New Year’s Day, carrying the spirit of the fundraiser through the holiday season and keeping the people behind the bulbs in the hearts and minds of friends and families.

Some of the proceeds will go to help a a family in need and the rest will go to the student council. Student council members will be busy selling in the days leading up to Dec. 5 and are pleased to offer that focuses on recognition of those passed on and serving their nation.

Student council member Abby Luke said the project, while focusing on remembrance, might bring people together.

“I think it’s pretty cool. We have a lot of people in the military (from Ronan). It’s a good community project,” she said.

Student council member Taylor Lynch said the project meant a lot to her personally because her veteran great-grandfather had passed away. She said that the proceeds the student council received would be put to good use, citing a recently opened school store was one project that the funding could be used toward. The store sells breakfast and snacks throughout the week and pizza on Fridays.

Another student council member, Sage Burland said he hoped bringing people together with the project would inspire community dialogue on the subject of loss and help encourage people to support the student council.

Ronan High School’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) are donating the trees for the project, a representation of the first recent cooperation between the two groups, according to the high school’s FFA President Bridgette Lake. Lake is also the treasurer for the student council. She predicted the ceremony will be a big success.

“I think we’ll be really surprised how many people will come to that,” she said.

FFA instructor Ben Meyer said that the FFA has been donating trees to people in need, hospitals and other organizations in the past, and that the chance to work with the student council provided a great opportunity.

He said it was important for students to connect with past leaders, important community members and family members who had passed on and this project would help keep those relationships alive.

The project was inspired by a similar fundraiser at Glasgow High School, according to Jensen.