During the week of March 18, 2024, Lincoln East Student Council hosted Wish Week, a fundraiser that partners with Make-A-Wish Nebraska to collect donations for children with critical illnesses. Through student participation in activities such as duck ring toss at lunches and purchasing tickets to a Teacher vs. Teacher basketball game, East students help grant the wishes of ill children.

Senior Gibby Chapman was Co-Chair for Make-A-Wish her junior year, and is now the sole chair for Make-A-Wish at East, playing a major role in planning engaging events.

During Chapman’s sophomore year, East graduate Lily Lautenschlager was a Make-A-Wish kid with a mission of raising enough money to provide one wish for another child, which costs approximately $11,000. Student Council was successful in completing that goal.

”We’ve just been trying to beat that ever since,” Chapman said. “It does such great things for the kids in our community, so we just want to honor that legacy.”

Many Student Councils around Nebraska partner with Make-A-Wish, so competitions amongst the schools to collect the most donations helps drive fundraising efforts.

Make-A-Wish America has a motto that “Together, we create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. We’re on a journey to bring every eligible child’s wish to life,” and through student’s donations, they are able to accomplish this.

On March 27, 2024, the eighth annual Teacher vs Teacher basketball game took place, and Lux Middle School teachers defeated East teachers 38-36. Despite the high school’s loss, fan donations were still provided for children in need.

“It’s our biggest fundraiser,” Chapman said. “It’s been really fun being able to see all of our hard work that’s been culminating over literal months finally come out. Basically, we just get to watch teachers be bad at basketball, and it’s so fun being able to see the teachers not be teachers and just mess around.”