Under a storefront lit by fairy lights and decorated with painted signs, co-commissioners of the ASB fundraising committee, Sofia Gomez (11) and Vivi Ochoa (11), watched as a line snaked down the block leading to Wynston’s Ice cream, March 6. The two organized a “class wars” fundraiser with Wynston’s Ice cream, a local small business that has supported many Westview clubs and events in the past.

Westview’s four classes competed to gather the most sales with the incentive of creating a class flavor. In the end, the class of 2027 raised the most money. Ten percent of the sales went to ASB, which resulted in $236 raised. Gomez said she was happy with how the event went as the fundraiser helped connect the Westview community.

“I think it turned out really well,” Ochoa said. “I’m just happy that people went. Everyone that I’ve talked to about it talked about how happy they were that it happened and how involved everyone was. I saw lots of families and staff members. We got a lot of students from different groups. Right after school, a lot of underclassmen walked over. Later, more of the upperclassmen came with all their friends, and sports teams came, and the theater kids came after they finished rehearsal.”

The fundraiser started after school, and the two classes that were leading in sales were announced at 5 p.m. This led to a scoop-off at 7 p.m. between the two top classes, whose class presidents were challenged to fill a pint as fast as they could.

“The scoop-off was for the owner and workers there to have an interaction with some of the class presidents,” Gomez said. “The classes that were tied were the juniors and sophomores. The class presidents competed [against each other] and tried to fill a pint as fast as they could. Everyone really liked it, and a lot of people were looking through the window. It felt good, like a fun little break in between everything, because right after the scoop-off, they got really busy. [There were] lines down the block. It was really cool to see.”

Gomez said the event was inspired by a fundraiser that Mt. Carmel had held. She said her hope was to foster connections between the classes and heighten school spirit. Wynston’s has been a popular spot for Westview students and is a local small business, which Gomez said was important to the committee when planning the fundraiser.

“We wanted to keep it local,” Gomez said. “Wynston’s is close, and it’s good to support a small business. We decided to have a battle of the classes to keep all the classes involved, especially since it’s the middle of the year, and sometimes school spirit can go down.”

While planning the event, Gomez said clear communication with the owner and marketing intern at Wynston’s was important to making the event happen.

“There’s just so many things going on, especially during the springtime of the school year, and communication was probably most important during all [the planning],” Gomez said. “One thing I also learned is how to be professional. We are obviously young, and it’s hard to handle those business conversations, but I think it was a good learning point for us. There were a lot of phone calls to plan [the fundraiser], and we had to meet them halfway because they’re constantly busy. We contacted Sarah, the owner, and then she forwarded us to Jaden, the marketing intern, towards the very end to develop our ideas, [and organize] when we were going to decorate.”

In the past, Ochoa said that fundraisers outside of school sometimes struggled to attract a large number of people. The ASB fundraising committee focused on making posts to gain momentum.

“When we ended up creating the class war idea, the biggest thing that we worried about was how many people would show up,” Ochoa said. “When we have outside fundraisers within restaurants and other businesses, it’s really hard to get students to go, especially underclassmen. We were really hoping to publicize it a lot.”

The money that was raised will go towards ASB and school events, including an ice cream social for the winning class of 2027. The Junior class presidents will help create a new flavor of ice cream for the month of April.

“We’re currently making our Westview flavor of ice cream,” Ochoa said. “The class of 2027 won the Battle of the Classes, so they’ll be able to create an ice cream flavor, and they will also be able to have an ice cream social around an event where they get to try the ice cream at lunch. The flavor will be based on the monthly flavors for April, which they can [use as] a base for the flavor that they want. They have some based on what they have in their stock.”

Gomez and Ochoa said they hope to continue to work with Wynston’s for future fundraisers and events. They said that involving staff and the entire student body has helped make fundraisers more successful.

“We want to do more on-campus fundraisers to keep the whole student body connected,” Ochoa said. “One thing we’ve noticed is that people like when staff is involved in any activity. So, as a whole, ASB decided that we’re going to go with more staff involvement. Having that staff involvement, keeping the whole community together, is what we’ve learned works. We definitely attracted a lot of different social groups around the school and connected them with ice cream, which I think was pretty cool. We do hope to work with Wynston’s a lot more.”

Gomez said she is happy the event was able to not only raise money for ASB, but also unite different groups at Westview.

“I’m really glad it happened,” Gomez said. “I think it’s one of our most successful fundraisers. It felt like a whole community came together in a way. It made me happy.”