Jessica Caselden (right), and her fellow daughters of the prairie. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Two weeks from today should be cause for celebration.
The Coupeville High School football team steps onto the gridiron at Mickey Clark Field that night, hosting Klahowya in the first athletic contest of the 2023-2024 school year.
When the Wolves make their debut, the cheers will be even louder if CHS Athletic Trainer Jessica Caselden joins them on the sidelines.
If that happens, it will mean that we, Wolf Nation, rose up as one and righted a potential wrong.
That while we understand budget cuts are part of the new reality for many schools, that cutting the athletic trainer position, especially when it’s filled by a daughter of the prairie, is a step in the wrong direction.
Coupeville administrators decided they couldn’t fund the $8,600 necessary to provide protection for our town’s student/athletes, so we did.
We saved the position for a year and are sending a clear message something has to change before the next budget is crafted.
Having an athletic trainer in place, especially one as talented and committed as Caselden, who returned to The Rock and bought her childhood home, shouldn’t even be a question.
The position is too important to be reduced to a line item on a piece of paper.
It is your sons and daughters’ health and well-being.
It is having a trained pro on scene when the unthinkable happens, it is preventing and lessening injuries, it is a woman inspiring a new generation with her words and actions.
It is everything this school district says it wants in its core principals.
And we’re almost there.
The community has raised $6,420 as of Friday morning, leaving us $2,180 shy of saving the position.
There’s a car wash this Sunday, Aug. 20 from 10-2 at Ebey Academy, which sits on NE Terry, right across from the high school.
Suggested donation is $10, and you are certainly welcome to add tips.
Our GoFundMe, which has attracted 65 supporters, can be found here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/protect-inspire-wolf-athletes
You can also contact me at davidsvien@hotmail.com if you would like to donate in some other manner.
This is the weekend to make this a reality.
Whether you can donate $5 or $500, every dollar pushes us closer to sending a positive message across the prairie and out into the world.
We are Wolf Nation, hear us roar!
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