Great Brook School skate night to raise funds for eighth-grade D.C. trip

By ROWAN WILSON

Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Published: 02-07-2023 2:56 PM

Monadnock Roller Derby is hosting a skate night at Great Brook School in Antrim on Saturday at 6 p.m.

The event will raise funds for Great Brook eighth-graders who will take a trip to Washington, D.C., this spring for the first time since 2019, before the COVID pandemic. Great Brook Principal Jim Elder said the students seem very excited to have the opportunity to go again this year. 

“It’s such a good experience for a kid who is 13 or 14,” he said. “To see they are full citizens of this beautiful country, it’s almost like a rite of passage.”

But the price of the trip has increased drastically since 2019, accounting for cost of gas and general inflation.

“It’s a big worry for a lot of students,” Elder said.

Great Brook School Friends of Music and the PTO are contributing money to bring students on the trip and the school hopes to have another skate night Feb. 24 to raise more funds. Elder said his goal is for every student who wants to go and whose parents are comfortable letting them go be able to go.

Katie Hiers, student support counselor at Great Brook and vice president of Monadnock Roller Derby, said all money collected from ticket admissions will be donated to the school to use toward students going on the trip. They will also be selling magnets and donating those proceeds to student trip costs as well. They will be accepting cash and check donations.

Monadnock Roller Derby holds a skate night every month at Great Brook School. They always have a theme and for Saturday’s event, “the theme is friendship,” Hiers said. She thinks it’s appropriate for the night and for the upcoming D.C. trip.

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There will be a twinning costume contest with prizes. The event is open to the public and Hiers said 185 people attended the skate night in January . 

“If we hit that number [Saturday], we’ll make enough money to find an entire D.C. trip for a student,” Hier said. 

Hiers and her family joined roller derby as an alternative to organized sports and have found a strong community.

“We’re really proud of Great Brook School,” Elder said. “I’ve always been a big supporter of the roller derby. It’s a wonderful outlet. It’s kind of been entwined with the community of our school.”

The Friendship Skate Night is on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 6 p.m. in the Great Brook School. Admission is $5, and there is no admission cost for children under 5.

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