The annual Rolla High School PowderPuff football game took place Nov. 7th on the RHS football field. The night was a sight to see; flashes of blue and neon pink dotted the field as the junior and senior girls clashed head-to-head in an intense game of flag football, resulting in a junior team win. The spectacle was about more than bragging rights though; Leadership planned the friendly competition as a benefit for the Friday Backpack Program through Hope Alliance, raising and donating over one thousand dollars. Hope Alliance is a 501 non-profit organization, helping with the Friday Backpack Program’s mission of providing local school children with bags of nutritious food to take home over the weekend.
The Friday Backpack Program has been in existence for eighteen years, due largely to the dedication of Faith Barnes, Chair of Hope Alliance of Missouri, who founded the non-profit organization.
“We do more than feed their [students who receive Friday food bags] bellies. We feed their souls, and I really believe that the change is much deeper than just physical. It’s a soul change too, because they realize people care for them and they want to help them,” Barnes said.
The organization has reached more than students at the school. The program encourages volunteers and families of recipients alike. Even physical afflictions noticeably eased with the access to nutritional food provided by the Hope Alliance.
“I receive feedback from parents, teachers, [and] counselors, who’ve just said it had a profound positive influence. Sometimes some of these kids go on to volunteer themselves at other places. We’ve seen some reports of different physical ailments that either went away or lessened like skin rashes or asthma,” Barnes said.
The Leadership class, led by Janice Webb, has been in charge of organizing the PowderPuff game for years. This year, senior Molly Allison, and juniors Braydon Shenefield and Cooper Light, were in charge of this widely successful event. According to them, the event required a lot of planning outside of the actual game.
“The first thing we did was go through everything, look at all the calendars for all the other sports and just find dates for it, so everybody that possibly could come would. Then Molly worked really hard with all the fine details and stuff. We just helped her with whatever she wanted,” Light said.
PowderPuff’s success reached new heights and drew many members of the community. The stands were occupied by rows of onlookers, cheering for the volunteer players clad in neon out on the field, making for a well-attended game.
“For visitors and for players and cheerleaders, [the turnout] was pretty good. Last year, they only had one group of cheerleaders, and that was juniors and seniors combined. This year, there was a big group of each,” Shenefield said.
For junior Ruger Covey, a first-time cheerleader, the junior team’s win was not the only accomplishment to take home. The event served as a reminder of the importance of enjoying the high school experience—winning was just a plus.
“I think it was fun that everyone showed up and was there for the community, but I was kind of nervous because I’ve never done the cheerleading stuff before, and everyone was just looking at me,” Covey said.
Once the game kicked off, the excitement from the event left plenty of memories to share in the future with little to regret. For Allison, the main organizer of Powder Puff, the event went better than planned.
“It was really smooth. I thought there were going to be hiccups, but actually there were no problems at all. I got with my announcers, they did the big screen, the sound, the scoreboard, literally everything perfect,” Allison said.
