On Monday, April 2, Fossil Ridge High School’s Student Council screened two films in Fossil’s gyms in honor of Make-A-Wish week. From 5:00 pm to 7:00pm, Guardians of the Galaxy and Moana were played for an audience of approximately 15 total people in the main and auxiliary gym, respectively. Before the show, the student council sold concessions and collected donations for Fossil’s Make-A-Wish charity. Concession booths were originally intended to be manned by students from Fossil’s Special Education Program, but this was cancelled due to lack of attendance. Attendees to the event were provided with a total of about 25 folding chairs, and the films themselves were projected onto the walls of the gyms.

“This event really isn’t for the money,” stated Evan Curran, a member of Fossil’s Student Council. “We have other events, like the t-shirt sales, the prom fashion show, and all of these other fundraisers,” Curran continued. “Movie Night was never really made to be a fundraiser. It was made to involve as many people across the spectrum as possible.” As Curran explained, the event was not intended only for Fossil students, and was advertised across the school district. “We want to make sure that this isn’t just a Fossil thing, this is supposed to involve the entirety of the community, because we’re all coming together to help this one kid, Colton, who is in a very unfortunate situation,” Curran conveyed.

The event’s relation to Colton and Make-A-Wish week is not limited solely to fundraising, however. “Movie Nights have been done at Fossil, and they’ve been successful in the past, so we thought: ‘his favorite movies are Moana and Guardians of the Galaxy, let’s show Moana and Guardians of the Galaxy,’” Curran provided, explaining the thought process leading up to the event. In playing the films, copyright infringement was dodged via legal technicalities. “If you charge people for movies, then there are copyright issues. However, we are just asking for suggested donations,” Curran stated. How much each person donates varies. “There have been some people that have donated $20, others that haven’t donated at all, it just depends.”  The films were obtained on DVD via Amazon.

Movie Night was generally well received amongst attendees. Connor Switala is a fifth grader at Bethke Elementary that attended the event with a schoolmate and friend of his. “We just like Guardians of the Galaxy and we wanted to see it again,” Switala stated while on a snack break. “We’re big fans of it, and we just wanted a free movie.” Switala heard about Movie Night from his mother, who is a counselor at Fossil.

Movie Night was a forerunner to other events for Fossil’s Make-A-Wish Week. Be sure to look into all of the many other happenings offered during the week.