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South Valley Riverton Journal

Silver Rush is back!

Dec 09, 2021 03:28PM ● By Jet Burnham

Riverton High School student body officers prepare for Silver Rush 2020. (Photo courtesy of Katie Borgmeier.)

By Jet Burnham | [email protected]

Riverton High School students are excited for Silver Rush season. Many save money all year to spend on Silver Rush activities that benefit a local charity.

“It's really special for our school,” student body officer Cayce Kirkham said. “We’ve built a culture and a community of giving around this time of year.”

Students and community members can expect three weeks of activities including an improv comedy show (Dec. 3), Battle of the Bands (Dec. 4), a boutique (Dec. 4), Mr. Silver Rush pageant (Dec. 7), and holiday music concerts (Dec. 14 and 15). Students will be on the road in front of the school to accept donations on the evening of Dec. 15.

Community members can purchase Silver Rush Shakes at Arctic Circle or purchase admission or food at local businesses and restaurants which will donate a portion of their proceeds to Silver Rush on certain nights. Information about these events will be posted on Instagram @rhs_silverwolves and the school website.

Two-thirds of the student body will be experiencing their first real Silver Rush—last year’s events were severely limited due to public safety precautions. Students are excited to be able to perform Odd Jobs every night 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., going door-to-door to offer help to community members and to collect donations.

 The school is also auctioning off a Christmas tree, specially directed with the school's colors. You can make a bid at the school's attendance office. 

The proceeds of Silver Rush this year will go to the Single Parent Project. Funds will help buy Christmas gifts and help single parents pay for extracurricular activities for their children, including RHS students.

“This is a super local charity and all of the change that we’re doing will directly impact our community,” SBO Grayson Smith said.

Meghann Brimhall is the founder of Single Parent Project. She was the very first sophomore class president at Riverton High School (1999-2000) and helped start the tradition of Silver Rush. “To be a part of the very first Silver Rush and then be a part of it again in a completely different role and being on the receiving end is so amazing,” she said.

Single Parent Project provides financial support, workshops, support groups and a community for single parents. Brimhall said Silver Rush contributions will boost their scholarship program for single parents who are going back to school or who are sending their kids to college. Two of her board members and an employee are RHS alumni who are thrilled to be part of Silver Rush once again.

“I would definitely say being a part of the very first Silver Rush probably paved the way for me to have that charitable giving mindset,” Brimhall said. “Part of the purpose of starting a nonprofit was to have my kids be able to give back in something that they went through. I was a single mom for a while so they lived that life of being a child of a single parent.”

SBO President Dylan Elliott said the magic of Silver Rush makes it the best time of the year.

“As a little kid, I loved the magic that the holidays have, but you kind of lose this magic,” he said. “There’s a really beautiful thing when you walk into our school during December—you feel that magic again. That is something so cool about Silver Rush, the feelings inside that radiate out into our community and beyond.”

The SBOs said the traditions and magic of Silver Rush are more important than the amount of money they raise, but the closing assembly is still one of their favorite parts of the season.

“My favorite part is, that no matter what number is on that banner, when it drops, everybody's in tears and hugging each other and we're so happy,” SBO Tanner Morrison said.

“I don't look at the banner, I don’t look at the crowd,” SBO adviser Katie Borgmeier said. “I look at the charity and I watch their reaction because you can see the change that we have just made for them and their charity.”