It was the luck of the draw Friday that landed Oxford Middle School students Taylor Roop and Andrea Woody a pair of autographed Uncle Kracker T-shirts and bumper stickers.
“This is only the second thing I’ve ever won,” exclaimed Woody, a seventh-grader. Her father, Scott Woody, a para-professional at OMS, purchased the ticket for her as a surprise.
“I thought it was cool because I only bought two tickets,” said Roop, an eighth-grader and big fan of Uncle Kracker, who wore her “lucky shirt” the day of the drawing.
Roop and Woody won the first of three raffles featuring autographed items donated by the rock/hip-hop star who calls Harrison Township his home.
Six autographed T-shirts, a jogging suit and some bumper stickers were procured for the raffle by Uncle Kracker’s (a.k.a. Matt Shafer) first cousin, Stacy Fisher, an eighth-grade Language Arts teacher at OMS.
Proceeds generated by the raffles will be used to help finance the transportation needed for the eighth-grade “Patriot Team” to take field trips this year.
The eighth-grade class is divided into two academic teams, each consisting of approximately 180 students and math, science, history, language arts and special education teachers.
Fisher explained that budgets cuts in the district eliminated the set funding each team used to receive to pay for busing students on field trips.
“Our goal is to cover the bus costs for one or two events,” which can average between $500 and $600 round-trip, Fisher said. “It’s pretty expensive.”
Rather than conduct the usual bagel sales or other typical school fund-raisers, Fisher approached her famous first cousin for help.
With two young daughters in public school, a wife with a teaching degree and a cousin who’s a teacher, Fisher said Uncle Kracker understands how budget cuts affect students.
“He knows what’s going on and he knows it’s hard, so he’s willing to support us in any way he can,” she said. “He’s a very, very generous person.”
So far, Fisher is pleased with the school’s response to the raffle. “It seems that it’s going really well,” she said. “The kids are so excited. It’s the craziest thing.”
“I have kids who weren’t going to be here today (Friday) because they were going up north for the weekend, so they came in yesterday to buy a ticket.”
“To me he’s just a normal person, but to them he’s the closest some of them will ever get to meeting someone famous,” Fisher said.
Drawings for the remaining Uncle Kracker memorabilia are scheduled for Friday, Nov. 14 and Friday, Nov. 21. The jogging suit, which is not autographed, will be raffled during the last drawing.
Raffle tickets are $1 each and sold during each of the middle school’s five lunch periods on the day of the drawing. Winners will be announced at the end of the fifth lunch and featured in The Oxford Leader.