The vibrant green posters with details on the Eric Day Benefit could be found all around the school. Photo By: Michaela Moreno

By Michaela Moreno

On March 17 2012, Plymouth High School’s field hosted a 5k run and a one mile walk as a benefit for Eric Day, a graduate of PHS, who has been battling with a brain tumor.

During the week of St. Patrick’s Day, student volunteers sold t-shirts for the Eric Day Benefit. Students and faculty alike, wore the shirts they had bought on the Friday prior to the big event.

Senior Jason Pickell said “that Mrs. Flynn and Mrs. Scheetz, along with Eric’s mother, Mrs. Day, collaborated and thought of the idea [for the fundraiser].”  That idea soon spread from the school to the entire community. According to the junior representative of pep club, Andria Shook, “around 500 people signed up for the run previous to the morning of the [actual event on March 17th].” That is not including the people who signed up that day.

Word of the benefit spread through the school population many ways. One of junior Justina Hite’s friends told her about the benefit. She joined the dash because she knows Eric Day personally and has good memories of her freshman year when Day was just a senior. “He’s a really great guy and I just wanted to support him,” said Hite. Junior Bellinda Bottorff learned about the benefit through the St. Michael’s Youth Group. Bottorff, like Hite, joined the dash because she also got to know him personally. “Eric Day and I, along with Kory Hinz, managed the girls basketball team when I was a freshman,” explained Bottorff. Other students, like freshman Allie Wright, who heard about the benefit through student council, joined the dash because it was for a good cause. A common way that other students learned about the benefit, was by the bright green flyers all around the school that included details about when and where the Eric Day Benefit would take place.

Many of Plymouth High School’s organizations/clubs were involved with the benefit. Junior Marissa German knows for a fact that pep club and the student council were involved because she is a member of both organizations. “There were probably many other clubs that had to do it too,” said German.

There were many ways to get involved with the benefit besides being in the actual dash or a club that helped put it together. Wright, for example, went to the benefit with other members of the track team to support since they were not allowed to participate. Besides supporting, they also helped set up. Sophomore Daniel Flynn, on the other hand, “worked a water stop route with [his] friends and cousins.”

Many students involved were not sure why St. Patrick’s Day was chosen as the date of the benefit. Shook, on the other hand, has an idea of why that specific day was chosen. “It was the week after his treatments were done and since ‘day’ was in it,” Shook said.
There were many aspects of the benefit that participators enjoyed. “My favorite part of the event was being able to reminisce with some people that I haven’t seen for awhile and just seeing everyone get together for a good cause,” said Hite. Besides being with friends, one of Bottorff’s favorite parts of the benefit was the pulled pork burgers. She found them to be wonderful, not that she did not also enjoy working towards a good cause. Wright’s favorite part of the benefit was “seeing how many people came to help Eric Day.”

Students have gained many things through their experiences with the Eric Day Benefit. Hite, for example, said, “It made me very thankful for all of the friends I have and the courage that Eric has while he is going through this hard time.” Through her experience, Bottorff “realized that people can really make an impact on something so small or so big. We just have to set our mind to it and we can achieve just about anything.” Flynn’s experience was a little different. He learned the “ability to dance to ‘totally 80’s weekend’ while people [were] running by [him].”

Receptionist and bookkeeper, Lisa Huff, was one of the many sporting an Eric Day t-shirt. Photo By: Michaela Moreno