Great Change War

By Anne Mirich, GHS Senior

Published: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

GHS students, from left, Kamra Fox, Abby Mehling and Erika Hartsock face a giant pile of change to count with business teacher Lisa Legare, right. Courtesy photo.

Glasgow School District and Wolf Point School District went head-to-head in a “Change War” last Friday. The challenge was created to benefit the Jimison family, whose son, Justin Jimison, suffered from a rare AVM (arteriovenous malformation, a birth defect that led to a brain bleed). The war wasn’t about changing anything, except maybe for the better. Instead the war was about which district could collect the most change. Born in Glasgow, Jimison is now an intervention specialist at Northside School in Wolf Point. Glasgow High School students gleefully went to second period, excited that class could not start until all the change had been counted. They came to class with baggies, jars and buckets full of change. They emptied their pockets and coin trays from their cars onto teachers’ desks. Brady Flaten, the history and government teacher, looked at the bucket on his desk, almost filled to the brim, and made a deal with his class to have them help him count the change. Other teachers looked through their own wallets to help the cause. Claudine Jamba, the junior high English teacher, was just short of $300. She searched through her purse to get the final $6 and added it to the bucket. Glasgow High School managed to collect $3,224.04. Combined with East Side Elementary School, the total came to $3,904.27. The Scotties were short of the Wolves' success, with Wolf Point’s total coming to $6,701.32. The combined efforts raised a total of $10,605.59, which hopefully added some change to the Jimisons' lives.