If one was to check out the Walpole High School campus after school hours about four years ago, the student body and faculty would have been bustling with a plethora of activities–one for almost every type of student in the school. Nowadays, the after school club scene is less active, and unfortunately, offers a significantly less number of activities to the students.  This is not because the students of the school are less willing to participate in after school activities, but because the school has had to cut numerous clubs in order to meet the substantial amount of budget cuts.  Because of the budget cuts that have taken place within Walpole’s Public School System in the past few years, a number of clubs have been forced to be cut, thus leaving many students without a way to get involved within the school community. To prevent further cuts to the after school club scene within Walpole High, Principal Stephen Imbusch has taken action and introduced the iRaffle. On April 5, during the WHS Morning NEws, the school raffled off an iPad 3 (the iPad that was released by Apple on March 16) for the first prize winner, $100 in lottery tickets for the second prize winner, and an autographed Clay Buchholz Baseball for the third prize winner. The proceeds of the raffle go to benefit several WHS Extracurricular Clubs/Activites, including Robotics, Drama Club, Best Buddies Club, Diversity Club, and more.

Since budget cuts have become a prominent part of the Walpole Public School System atmosphere, the school has been forced to cut down on a vast number of clubs, leaving many students with nothing to do after school hours. “We have cut down so much on clubs; this school has less than half of the clubs we had about four years ago because of budget cuts,” said Imbusch. “We were way over budget, so we have had to make some adjustments, like merging the Class Advisors and the Student Council, for example.” The school came up with the idea to raffle off the iPad 3, and the other prizes, after the Drama Club’s annual musical was close to being cut. “We did not want to get rid of an event that brought so many people,” said Imbusch, so the school decided upon raffling off the iPad 3 to raise money to help keep the musical alive. Besides the raffle, Imbusch does not think another event will be held this year to help raise money for extracurricular activities. “Other acitivies have their own way of raising money; activity fee for students to join the clubs will bring in money for the school, and sports also bring in revenue with their own activity fees,” he said.

The drawing for the WHS iRaffle is on April 5 during the Morning News, and the proceeds will help prevent further cuts to be made to the afterschool activities.  “I’m glad the school is taking action to help prevent further cuts to clubs like the Drama Club,” said WHS graduate Sabrina Dorronsoro. “I was an active member of the Drama Club, and I know from experience clubs like that enable students to find their place in the school and find out who they really are.” Tickets are being sold on  WHS Enotes, sent out by Principal Stephen Imbusch, at the Walpole High Guidance, Attendance, and the Main Office. Ticket sales for the iRaffle did well during the weeks they were sold, and Imbusch expects the raffle to provide the school enough money to keep many extracurricular activities alive, and keep students involved in the school community.