Chick-fil-A Leader Academy holds second annual basketball tournament fundraisers
Students at Cedartown and Rockmart High Schools got to end their time in school before Spring Break with a much better activity than sitting in class waiting out the final hours before a week of freedom.
Instead of watching the clock from desks, they watched it in the bleachers of both the school’s gymnasiums on March 29 as students from the Chick-fil-A Leader Academy organized the second annual tournament for a fundraiser for local causes.
Cedartown students will be giving their funds back to a new effort according to Chick-fil-A of Rockmart owner Zach Thomas. He said the group will give every dollar raised to a new mentoring effort called “Students for Polk” that he expects will begin with the 2019-2020 school calendar year in the fall.
The program seeks to pair select high school students with those in elementary schools across the district.
Rockmart students decided to give their funds over to the Rockmart Homeless Initiative this year, Thomas said.
The groups at each school are the latest classes in the Chick-fil-A Leader Academy, organized and funded by Thomas as part of an overall community effort to help grow new young leaders across Polk County.
Thomas said the tournaments are a great way for students to give back at a low cost, and he hoped “a lot more fun than sitting in class” before the start of Spring Break.
He added it is his hope to continue the annual tradition into 2020, and always hold the tournaments the Friday before students are released for the week off in late March or early April, or however it might fall on the calendar.