A wonderful opportunity to watch a high school football game and support a great cause is coming up at École Olds High School.
The Olds Spartans will be raising awareness about domestic violence and collecting donations for the Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society’s facility in the Town of Olds – Kirsten’s Place. Spartans Head Coach Hayden Brenneis says “we’re looking to raise awareness for Kirsten’s Place/domestic violence and kind of show our football team that there is a little bit bigger picture out there and that community is one of those things that will never leave. So, we want to try and encourage some of those roots in our players.”
Grade 11 student Raelynn Sande is Kirsten’s niece, and she will be the guest speaker at the game. Sande says “yeah it is super exciting. It means a lot to be able to remember my auntie Kirsten and bring awareness to the situation. It means a lot to bring awareness and to really include the community and the high school and really bring us all together, and to be able to let everybody be aware of the amazing resource that the Mountain View women’s shelter is ”
Purple is recognized as the colour of domestic violence and the Olds Spartans will be wearing special purple jerseys for the game versus Notre Dame out of Red Deer. Vice-Principal Jana Kemmere says “our Head Coach, Mr. Brenneis, he has really taken the lead on this. We are hoping to get the community involved and really raise awareness for domestic violence and raise some money also towards Kirsten’s Place. We have family connections within the school. The jerseys that have been designed for this really exciting event are honouring Kirsten. Her grad dress was a camo dress, so if you see the jerseys, they have camo print and the purple, of course, for raising awareness for domestic violence. We’re just hoping to get as many community members as possible to come out and have our players supporting something that is greater than just another football game and greater than themselves but such a strong community initiative that our community has just stood behind, getting Kirsten’s Place together.”
Kick off is set for 4pm on Friday, September 25th at Normie Kwong Park. Grade 11 Linebacker Alex Andrew says “yeah so this is amazing. We always look forward to doing fundraisers for all around town with our sponsors and for this jersey for example. We like to support as much as we can and we’d love for all of the fans to show up and support as much as they can as well.”
Listen to 96.5 The Ranch’s Community Hotline conversation with Jana Kemmere.
The Ranch also spoke with Hayden Brenneis.
Hear more audio with Raelynn Sande.
Alex Andrew chatted with The Ranch as well.
