For The Love Of Kids And Games
With the Kraft Shop and Score program kicking off Sept. 20, shoppers help a favorite high school earn cash for new athletic gear. Just ask kids at Castle High, which was the top winner last year and bought new uniforms for five teams
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Castle High athletic
director Richard Haru
ching. Ka-ching! Score, score, score!
The checkout stand is the goal line. The cashier is scorekeeper and tallies qualified products and points in the automated computer system.
“Shoppers can designate any participating high school on Oahu, regardless where they live or at which Times they shop,” says Shintaku, Kraft’s head cheerleader. “The more products purchased on a school’s behalf, the larger its share of the credit.”
Winner’s Circle
Last year, of the 40 participating schools on Oahu, Castle High School came out on top with more than $10,000 worth of points. Other schools in the top five include Kaimuki, McKinley, Kalani and Aiea.
With its share of points, Castle High School was able to outfit the boys and girls basketball teams in new uniforms as well as provide new jerseys for the women’s softball and volleyball teams and new pants for the football team.
In addition, they purchased men’s and women’s polo shirts and reversible jerseys, according to Stan Costales of The Sports Line Company.
Kaimuki, McKinley and Kalani high schools purchased new uniforms for their track teams, while Aiea High provided new uniforms for both boys and girls soccer, recalls John Akana, sales rep for adidas/Wilson.
As part of the program, an additional $25,000 in scholarships is awarded to outstanding athletes,
courtesy of American Savings Bank. The winning school automatically gets one of the 17 scholarships.
Ka-ching! Earn and learn. “Community participation continues to grow year after year,” says Godfrey. “We saw a 30 percent increase in the total points Oahu shoppers earned in 2005 compared to 2004.”
In addition, the majority of the schools finished ahead of the prior year’s point totals, with private schools finishing 197 percent ahead of the previous year and public schools up 117 percent.
This year, more than 40 public and private schools are participating in the Kraft Shop and Score program. Since its inception, the program has donated more than $300,000 worth of sports equipment and uniforms to Oahu schools. All schools are guaranteed a minimum of $500 credit.
Sideline Story
Lest you think this is a perfunctory market promotion and nothing else, think again. UH Lab School athletic director Jim Burkes can attest to the value of Shop and Score points.
Like frequent flier mileage, it is a resource of serious worth.
When the UH Lab School lost athletic equipment and uniforms in a recent fire, contributions came from sympathetic hearts. Assets, Hawaii Baptist Academy, St. Andrew’s, and Academy of the Pacific donated their Shop and Score points to UH Lab School.
“We will use the points to replace items for the wrestling and judo programs that we host at our campus,” Burkes says. “We lost a lot of equipment in the fire, some brand new and never used. Items like wrestling mats are very expensive.”
“Last year, we earned over $3,000 worth of credit and used it to buy four sets of volleyball uniforms,” he says. “They had not been delivered yet, so they were not in the fire. We are able to start the volleyball season in new uniforms.”
And so it goes in the annual Shop and Score scenario. Like any competitive sport, there’s teamwork involved, a game plan to succeed, and the thrill of victory.
The biggest winners are the students.
As Castle High School, top winner the past three years, athletic director Richard Haru puts it: “The bottom line of any sports program is the positive character building and the lifetime learning that are instilled in the process.”
Ka-ching! Now you’ve really scored.
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