Schools

Lakeview Wins Concert with American Idol

Students from Lakeview High School won a concert with American Idol Casey James for their efforts in collecting phones for Cell Phones for Soldiers.

Lakeview High School has won a private concert by American Idol contestant Casey James for collecting one of the largest number of cell phones in a tri-county contest for the national charity Cell Phones Soldiers.

The students collected 626 cell phones in the contest sponsored by GM Military Discount and 99.5 WYCD, and was one of the top schools in Metro Detroit.

By collecting such a large number of phones, Lakeview won the Feb. 16 concert with James, who was a top-three finalist during the ninth season of American Idol and has appeared before live audiences with Sugarland.

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The collection drive was organized and run by the student-led community service organization Huskies with Heart. Students reached out to their fellow students, Lakeview staff, the community and the St. Clair Shores Senior Center

"What impressed me most about our school's success was that our school just collected phones. We didn't mention pizza parties, concerts from country music stars, or anything," Matt Barranca, Huskies with Heart staff adviser, said in a release. "Our students and community were just incredibly generous, simply to help out the soldiers." 

A total of 3,236 were collected for Cell Phones for Soldiers during the campaign. The organizations helps military families keep in touch during deployments by recycling, or refurbishing, donated phones. The phones are sold, and funds raised are used to purchase pre-paid international calling cards for military families.

Find out what's happening in St. Clair Shoreswith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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