As Merrill High School’s Skills USA team was preparing to go to the 2011 state conference, a tornado struck their community. Due to the tornado, the team didn’t make the state conference last year, but decided instead to make a difference for Merrill.
Within a week of the tornado, the students were marketing T-shirts to raise money for the Merrill Chamber of Commerce tornado relief fund.
“They actually gave people t-shirts with a $30 donation to tornado relief,” said Skills USA advisor Pete McConnell.
A year later, t-shirt sales have raised $1,500, which was presented to the Chamber last week. Tornado victims are continuing to come in for funds to pay costs not covered by their insurance, said Chamber of Commerce representative Cheryl Skoug.