Written By: Landon Cole, Emmerson, and Gabby

This week, on March 7th, ThunderRidge participated in the 4th annual Grizz Gives Assembly. Each year, ThunderRidge partners with The Caruso Family Charity to raise money for a family in need. This year ThunderRidge raised $55,000 to support the Allen and Sampson families. 

Cha Cha Allen suffers from Sickle Cell Disease (an incredibly painful disease) and with the money, the family is able to support and help her. Joshua Sampson suffers from Chronic Granulomatous Disease and the family is now able to support him and pay for his hospital bills with the money that they received.7=his can include anything from ‘Groutfit’ to ‘Dress Like a Minion Day’. On top of that ThunderRidge holds events such as Dodgeball and Pack the Gym; a Unified Basketball Game to raise money for the Allen and Sampson families. If you would like more information on any of these days and their traditions, be sure to check out the other stories published this week!

The tradition of Grizz Gives Week is not new, however. The name was recently changed from Wish Week to Grizz Gives Week. Both traditions are held in the same spirit, however, while Grizz Gives Week raises money for the Caruso Family Charity, Wish Week raised money for the Make-A-Wish foundation. ThunderRidge wanted all of the money that we raised to go to the family itself, so 4 years ago we changed Wish Week to Grizz Gives Week.

During the assembly the crowd was able to enjoy fun games, feeder school comments, and competitions between classes to try and raise a little bit more money before the families were presented with the total donation value. The Allen and Sampson families were brought out and presented with the numerous presents that ThunderRidges seminars donated. After that the feeder schools all came and spoke,announcing how much money they raised. Finally, the ThunderRidge Student Government announced how much money ThunderRidge had made. The families were able to each go home with new presents and enough money to continue to support their ill children. However, the assembly ended in true ThunderRidge fashion as we closed with the “Do it Cheer”. This week was an amazing unifying event that we do every year and we were able to help support two families with enough money to get by.