At 4:30 on Friday, September 13, the freshmen tailgate began for freshmen and their mentors at RHS before the first home football game of Rochester versus Clarkston.
“In all honesty I’m just looking forward to seeing a bunch of our freshmen and a bunch of our mentors interacting together,” mathematics teacher Ms. Shooks said. “Just having a good time and getting their spirit fired up before the game.”
The tailgate was filled with activities such as a bounce house obstacle course, free food, face painting and tailgating games. The planning has been going on since summer with the help of the mentor program advisors and mentors.
“We started planning way back in the summer and it seriously takes a lot of people, without our mentors we could not pull it off because they are the ones actually on the front line, you know getting the kids to the event today,” Shooks said.
Ultimately though the goal of the big set up for the freshmen tailgate was to help freshmen become more involved.
“We want to get freshmen involved in, it doesn’t matter if its athletics, if it’s for performing arts or one of our clubs,” Ms. Shooks said. “Just so they have a sense of belonging and they not only have a self-identity but they are also belonging to their class and Rochester as well.”
