Student athletes selling Christmas trees is one of the many campaigns done by sports to raise money. This fundraiser, which starts in late November, has all the sports teams at OHS trying to help Oviedo families find a real tree for their homes. 

Scott Waisanen, head soccer coach and OHS Chemistry teacher, said “Anytime you do a group activity with a common goal it helps with team building.” 

This annual athletics fundraiser shows how much athletes care about their sport. The fundraiser helps bring teammates together while being recognized for their efforts to earn money to support all of the sports offered at OHS. 

“This fundraiser helps a lot because it helps cover expenses that athletics needs,” said Waisanen. “It helps with the costs of banquet awards, officials, post season playoffs, a good turf.” 

The athletics team may not always have the money to support their activities outside and within  the sport itself. “It really helps with a lot of stuff,” he added. 

The fundraiser is designed in a way that athletes can enjoy themselves with their teammates while also working hard to sell Christmas trees.

“We have Spikeball and volleyball and frisbee and kickball out there so they just kind of hang out. We sell to the coaches as just another opportunity to have a team bonding event for them,” said John McKernan, lacrosse coach and biology teacher.

In addition, the fundraiser creates another world for little kids and their families. 

McKernan stated, “When kids get into that tent, it’s like a whole new  world to them.” 

The kids get fascinated from the moment they see the trees over double their height. The first thing on their mind is playing games and running through the trees. 

“The trees are, you know, five times taller than the kids and they just start running around and playing hide and seek.” McKernan says.

As the teams participate in this fundraiser to help support their sport, they can all benefit by splitting the money throughout all teams. 

“Every day a sport comes out there and then whatever money we have is kind of split. I think a good part of the money went toward paying off the football field but now that that’s paid off, they kind of evenly split it and give every team a couple 100 bucks every year.” McKernan explained.

As for the actual trees, McKernan said, “We get 290 trees total and we usually have like maybe five to ten leftovers.”

The weekend after Thanksgiving is the busiest time because of Black Friday.  “Like 80 of those [trees that are sold] come from Black Friday. That’s the busiest day and it’s kind of murder for us because everybody comes in there that day.” Said McKernan.