Toy drive nets a reigning ‘Idol’

McCreery will perform at BHS Monday

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in chief

Scotty McCreery, the deep-voiced teen sensation of American Idol fame, will be at Burlington High School Monday to perform, visit with students and thank them for their contributions to the Toys for Tots campaign.

School officials learned late Monday that BHS had won the visit after collecting the most toys in a contest sponsored by Milwaukee radio station FM 106.1.

The concert is a fitting reward for an all-school effort that one staff member labeled “incredible.”

McCreery is expected to be at BHS from roughly 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The concert is tentatively scheduled from noon to 12:45 p.m. in the school gym, according to Lisa Harris, secretary in the school counseling office.

She said Principal Eric Burling was scheduled to meet with a representative of the radio station Wednesday to finalize the details of the concert. It was likely, she said, that the concert would be for staff and students only.

(Further concert details will be provided as they become available at www.myracinecounty.com.)

McCreery is expected to perform songs from his recently released country debut, “Clear as a Day.” He won the season 10 competition of American Idol last May.

Harris, who was involved in the contest from the beginning, said she still can’t believe how things transpired.

“When we heard about it on the radio, we thought it would be neat to enter,” she said. “Once we were selected to participate, I thought we’d have a (collection) box in here and get a couple hundred toys.

“But it just took off. It was incredible.”

That “couple of hundred” actually grew by more than 10 times as students, staff members and community members stepped up to donate 2,707 toys in a little more than a week’s time for the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. The annual campaign provides Christmas toys for children of needy families.

Harris credits sophomore students Bianca Clayton and Madison Epping with playing key roles in the successful drive.

Clayton heard about the contest on FM 106 and suggested the school enter. With the help of teacher Jennifer Stever, Clayton sent an email entry to the station and then celebrated when Burlington was among five area high schools randomly selected to participate in the contest.

Once the word got out to the rest of the school, things took off.

The Driven student leadership club stepped forward; the FFA sponsored a leaf-raking fundraiser; and homerooms competed to raise the most money.

By the time the contest wrapped up Nov. 4, the U-Haul storage bin provided for the collection was bulging under the stress of the many donations, according to Harris.

Teachers Matt Behringer and Josh Dow spent five hours last Thursday evening shopping for toys with the $2,700 that had been donated to the school’s drive. Behringer said the two nearly cleared out the inventory at some of the stores.

Competing along with Burlington were Greendale, Kewaskum, South Milwaukee and Waukesha West high schools. Representatives from the Marine Corps picked up the storage bins Friday and began the counting process.

Combined, the five schools donated 9,724 toys. Burlington’s contribution amounted to about 28 percent of the total.

“Everybody really pulled together,” Harris said. “It was really fabulous.”