Over the years, Student Council’s School Chest school-wide fundraiser has helped raise money for local beneficiaries, such as Paws for Patrick, Dragonfly, and the Michael Matters Foundation. This year, Deerfield High School selected Gigi’s Playhouse as the recipient.
School Chest, Deerfield’s largest fundraising event, has seen many changes for the 2023-2024 school year, including that fundraising now lasts four weeks and starts in October instead of the previous three-week period that started in November. Such changes have left students curious about what else this year’s fundraising holds. Changes to annual events that students have known and loved have left many at DHS wondering what prompted this transformation.
Following the COVID era, fundraising for School Chest has not been the same as it used to be. Deerfield has seen a decrease in not only the amount of money raised but also attendance at various events. As Student Council makes changes to the School Chest calendar this year, they hope that there will be newfound excitement for not just School Chest, but also Gigi’s Playhouse. Gigi’s Playhouse is a local charity, providing free educational, fitness, and therapeutic help for people with Down Syndrome.
“Gigi’s Playhouse is a remarkable organization that puts in effort to raise awareness and assist children with Down syndrome,” said Gabrielle Strouse, School Chest 2023 co-chair. “School Chest aims to make a significant contribution to their cause this year by raising as much money as we can.”
“School Chest is starting earlier and welcoming new events this year,” she added. “We have begun advertising to a younger audience outside of school to allow for the entire community to be involved.”
While some may ask why these changes are necessary, the answer is clear to School Chest leaders: the changes are happening to form a stronger community. By replacing events from the past, School Chest can keep up with the community and its trends so that it can raise more money for the cause. “Benefit”, a silent auction held for School Chest every year, is one of the more notable events that Student Council eliminated this year. Deerfield Idol, a singing competition held between DHS students, and Deerfield Feud, a family feud-style game held between Deerfield clubs and sports, have also been discontinued. While these events are changing, other events have stayed the same. Things like food sales, Fashion for Compassion, the student and teacher auctions, and more will continue to be key parts of the effort.
Beyond School Chest, Deerfield’s Student Council is growing as a club. This year the club was opened up to all students, a stark contrast from the application process used in prior years. This has drastically changed the structure of the club. This led to more questions in the student body regarding how Student Council is changing with the times.
Dan Chamberlin, Assistant Principal and Student Council sponsor, explains the intent behind these wide-ranging changes. “As a Student Council, we amped it up a bit, so we are going through a few growing pains in deciding what a core council member is doing as opposed to a body member. Core is essentially our Exec Board. Hearing from Student Council members is going to help us with deciding our direction for next year,” he said.
Chamberlin said that Student Council is going through an entire rebuilding process. The new structure has added a lot of new members, and while it may seem to be more chaotic, it helps the club get events done faster. With more members, Student Council can engage with more students and get the message of School Chest to spread faster. This allows students to become even more excited about the changes coming to one of the largest clubs in the school, and how it will impact their activities held throughout the year.
School Chest is sure to be a success and Gigi’s Playhouse is an amazing beneficiary. As Gigi’s moves into the new year, they are also moving into a bigger establishment closer to Lake Cook Road. For those who are interested in helping Gigi’s during their big move, consider checking out schoolchest.org and @gigisplayhousedeerfield on Instagram!
