The Unbreakable Will of This Pennsylvania Town – By Salena Zito (Washington Examiner) / Oct 5 2021
LOWER ALLEN TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — Sometimes, a community’s relationship with its culture and its people is so strong it can withstand anything that tries to break it apart. Such durability is a testimony to the sense of what Americans have within their communities.
On social media, we mostly read about traditions falling to the mob or, worse yet, to one person’s outrage. It’s rarer to see what happened in this Cumberland County town, where the community swiftly came to the defense of the Cedar Cliff Colts High School football booster club.
Across the country, booster clubs are a critical part of high school sports’ success, especially in rural and inner-city school districts where the funds allocated to sports programs have shrunk over the years. The parent-led volunteer clubs help raise money so their student players can have things like new helmets to replace aged and unsafe ones.
Here in this school district, as in thousands of districts across the country, raising money has been a challenge because COVID-19 has killed the fundraising. Local restaurants and businesses cannot give like they used to. Traditional fundraising efforts, such as selling cards at discounts at local businesses, can’t happen because a lot of local businesses are hurting.
