1/15/2010
Written By:
Category: Activities  
School(s): Kuemper Catholic  

When U.S. Cellular’s Calling All Communities campaign launched last year, the company asked everyone to vote for their favorite schools. Ten of them would go on to become $100,000 champions. The call went out across the country to large metropolitan areas, such as Chicago, St. Louis, and Oklahoma City, and to tiny rural communities on the outskirts of West Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. In the end, it wasn’t the size but the power of community that mattered most.

“We did not think we could win because we are a small rural community in North Carolina,” said Wendy Hooks, principal at Brogden Primary School in Dudley, N.C., whose winning school is featured in U.S. Cellular’s national advertising campaign. "What we lacked in financial support, we more than made up for in spirit and hope.”

Seven of 10 2009 Calling All Communities champions included towns with fewer than 20,000 residents. An Iowa school, Carroll Kuemper, was among last year’s winners. Kuemper used its Calling All Communities winnings to establish an endowment fund for teachers’ salary enhancements and invest in school-wide wireless connections and mobile computer labs.

“We were able to do great things for our students with the funding, and we wish all schools the best of luck with this year’s campaign,” Kuemper Principal Penny Miller said. “We could not have won last year without the support from our family, friends, neighbors, alumni and community.”

Once again, U.S. Cellular is rallying communities to believe in something better for schools in its 2010
Calling All Communities campaign. From Nov. 13, 2009, through Jan. 15, 2010, anyone 18 years or older can go to any U.S. Cellular store to get a code to vote online for their favorite school giving them a chance to be a $100,000 winner. There is no purchase necessary and you don’t have to be a U.S. Cellular customer to vote.