Published: January 07, 2009 10:04 pm      

Midland Trail in running for U.S. Cellular grant

Midland Trail High School is one of two West Virginia schools in the running to be awarded $100,000 from U.S Cellular.

The program, titled “Calling All Communities,” was launched Dec. 3 and more than 4,000 U.S. schools were nominated to win $100,000 for their school.

Midland Trail is currently ranked eighth in the country and needs to stay in the top 10 to win.

Assistant principal Randy Halsey said it was a teacher, Mrs. Chuyka, who learned about the competition.

“She did some research and found out that U.S. Cellular was doing this promotion to give the top 10 schools $100,000, so we promoted it here and told our students about it.”

To help the school, Halsey said, all you have to do is visit a U.S. Cellular store before Jan. 15 and fill out a card. There’s no purchase necessary and each person can vote only once.

He calls the possibility of winning the $100,000 a “tremendous opportunity” and says the entire donation would go toward the benefit of the students.

U.S. Cellular Mid-Atlantic Region PR counsel Melissa Watkins said, “We are trying to rally West Virginians to vote so that our state schools win.”

Midland Trail’s faculty and students are encouraging communities to come out and vote.

Students, cheerleaders, football, basketball and soccer teams will be holding a pep rally to try and get residents at the Fayetteville U.S. Cellular store from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Students will also be present at the Fayetteville store during the evenings for the next week until the contest deadline on Jan. 15. The winners will be announced in February.

— E-mail: jayres@register-herald.com