All together now

The Vikings and the Timberwolves might be old crosstown rivals, but they're also old friends sharing one community. 

Students from Coeur d'Alene and Lake City high schools met in the LCHS commons after school Friday to gather blankets, clothing, toiletries and other items they collected during their 2024 All for Awl campaign to deliver them to nonprofits throughout the community.

CHS senior and ASB secretary Jenny Elliott said she felt an overwhelming amount of joy knowing she and her peers were helping local human beings in need.

"It's really cool we come together," she said. "Even though we're rivals, we can come together."

CHS senior and ASB President Andi Jane Howard said her school's largest drive was for clothing.

"We got five or six big garbage bags full of clothes, and we got a lot of pet donations for Companions Animal Center, so that was really cool," she said. "Those two drives were super successful."

CHS sophomores also donated money to Press Christmas for All, Howard said.

"It was fun to do it after Christmas, too, because everybody's still in that spirit of giving back after the holidays," Howard said. "That was fun."

LCHS treasurer Nathan Edmonds said the All for Awl program is cool because it demonstrates the concept of unity between the two high schools.

"It's both high schools in Coeur d'Alene working for the benefit of Coeur d'Alene," he said. "Them coming here and delivering with us is a really great example of that."

The All for Awl campaign operates in conjunction with Fight for the Fish, the annual January school spirit battle/basketball tournament in which both schools vie for victory. The "AWL" acronym was first conceived as "All With Love" when the program began in 2020, but has taken on a new life as All for Awl, representing Coeur d'Alene's "heart of the awl" translation from French.

"All for Awl this year was a little later than it normally is, but that just extended the community and all our good feelings with CHS," said LCHS senior Ashley Kerns, ASB vice president. "It just extended that communication with them."

LCHS ASB President Luke Sharon said he and his peers are happy the All for Awl tradition has continued.

"It's really hard sometimes to start a tradition that is of this capacity," he said. "Having it continue, even through four, five years, is still pretty significant. We just want to continue that spirit of Fight for the Fish. Yeah, we are competing in Fight for the Fish, but ultimately we're coming together and this is the culmination of everything."

    Lake City High freshmen Jami Williams and Decker St. John carry items out to their cars for delivery Friday as the 2024 All for Awl program concludes. Students at Coeur d'Alene and Lake City high schools spent weeks gathering funds and needed items to support community nonprofits such as Children's Village and Union Gospel Mission.
  

    Coeur d'Alene High School senior and ASB President Andi Jane Howard, left, and CHS senior and ASB secretary Jenny Elliott are at Lake City High on Friday as they prepare to deliver collected items to local nonprofits with peers from both schools. The collections and distribution were done as part of the 2024 All for Awl campaign.
  

    Lake City High students deliver goods to St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho as they distribute donated items Friday. From left: Lanie Carter, Andy Everson, Luke Neary, Gabbie Henkle, Ava Angell, Taylor Brouse and Scout Brown.