Eastside Focusing On Charity, Not Competition This Spirit Week

Luke Jones, a senior basketball player for Eastside High School, towered above most of the kids scurrying around the school's cafeteria as they made their way to various points of interest during the midpoint of Spirit Week festivities. Some went to the homemade "jail" at the center of the lunch room, where students are forced to pay their own way out of pretend incarceration. Some darted for the cotton candy stand. 

In a corner, two students grooved on their electric guitars. Just hours earlier, a three-on-three basketball tournament was held to raise money for Eastside's cause. 

Spirit Week, widely known as "Wade Hampton Week," or "Eastside Week," to locals, depending on which school you owe your allegiance to pits  against to see who can raise the most money for their charities of their choice. This year, Eastside selected the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) as their beneficiary. The winner of the contest will be announced at halftime of Friday's football game between the two cross-town rivals. 

Jones put his work in during the lunch period Wednesday by selling "chipwiches," a popular sweet treat. While as an athlete, Jones may have a competitive streak, Spirit Week isn't about winning to him. 

"Of course we want to beat Wade Hampton, but it's more about raising money for charity," Jones said. 

Principal Mike Thorne said that while Eastside students used to call the week "Wade Hampton Week" in past years, it's become more of a tradition now for students to call it "Spirit Week" in order to recenter the school's focus on the cause, and not the competition. 

"You'll hardly hear any of us mention Wade Hampton. To us, this is Spirit Week," Thorne said. "We choose to focus on the cause we've accepted." 

"Our motto this year is 'All-In. We have 1,300 students at this school, and they're all playing a part." 

Jones and another student, Molly Wike, both said they'd like to improve upon last year's total of $130,000 and approach the $200,000 mark. 

"We've kind of said we'd like to hit $200,000, but really our goal is just to give it our all," Wike said. 

Senior Class President Addie Patterson Wilson said she and the rest of the school's student government selected its beneficiary last May, and spent much of the summer planning the roughly 70 events they packed into this year's Spirit Week. 

It's been a relatively high profile campaign for Eastside, as the school garnered attention from famous actor Colin Farrell, to the school thanking them for selecting FAST as their charity. Farrell's son has Angelman Syndrome. 

"We had no clue that was coming," Patterson Wilson said. "It really touched all of our hearts, and pushed us to go to the next level."