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Paden City Foundation to unveil New Trophy Case During Alumni Weekend

By Staff | Jun 29, 2022

The Paden City Foundation Trophy Case project is nearing completion and plans are being made for an official unveiling and dedication. The Foundation spearheaded the project with the intention of raising funds and having constructed a large trophy case to help house the numerous awards garnered by the students of Paden City High School over the years. Foundation president, Rodney McWilliams commented, “through the generosity of the friends and alumni of Paden City High School, over $10,000 was raised to get this project started and donations are still coming in. It was truly amazing, we basically had a flood of donations.’ It is worth noting that all donations were given by individuals including alumni of the school along with other friends and those who have ties to the school. No organization, no school or county tax money was used and no grants were obtained to fund this project. McWilliams added, “this project is 100% funded through individuals giving, we didn’t intend to ask for school funds, or county funds or seek any grant money. We wanted this to be friends and alumni-funded and that is exactly how the money was raised. Donations continue to flow in and will be used on this case and any, if available, to help retro-fit the existing cases to better display trophies in those cases.” Until the unveiling, the trophy case is being kept under wraps with limited access to it.

The new case is located in Jesse Brown Memorial Hall and measures 24 feet wide, 4 feet deep and about 10 feet high includes mirrored glass and lighting that will surely showcase the awards of the school. The case has capacity to hold many trophies representing victories from the school’s sports programs including football, boys and girls basketball, girls and boys track, volleyball, baseball and cheerleading as well as the high school marching band and stage band. McWilliams added, “the school already has three very large trophy cases located throughout the building that have reached capacity and we want to allow more room so the trophies can be more properly displayed. We especially want the current students to have room to display their winnings in trophy cases as they should be. This case and the existing cases will hold of awards from all the decades beginning with the 1950ás to the present so students, alumni and visitors to the schools can view awards from various generations in all sports in each case. “

The idea for the trophy case was initiated when the school notified the Foundation about the overflow of trophies and one of the school’s classes, taught by Stacey Yoho,began the arduous task of re-organizing one of the existing cases including taking an inventory of the contents. It soon became evident the best way to allow for all the awards to be displayed was to add another case. The Foundation then decided to take on the fund-raising and construction, obtaining permission from the school principal, Jay Salva, and selecting an area in Brown Hall because it was the only place available to build a case the size needed to accomplish the mission. The Foundation president commented, “we are certainly thankful to Ms Yoho and her students to beginning the task of organizing, cleaning and inventorying the exist trophy cases. It was their foresight that spurred the idea to construct this new case and the donors and the Foundation are happy to be able to get this accomplished.”

Rick Bertozzi, PCHS Class of 1984 and former teacher at PCHS has been building the case along with assistance from fellow alum Dave Gallo. Construction work has been progressing right on schedule and the finishing touches will be put in place in the coming days. Then, the task of filling the case with a variety of awards will complete the project in time for an unveiling and dedication ceremony to take place on Saturday, July 2 at 4:00. The event is part of the annual PCHS Alumni celebration weekend.

“The Paden City Foundation thanks all the wonderful donors who eagerly gave funds for this project and continue to do so and a huge thank to Rick Bertozzi who took the vision of the trophy case and turned it into a real showpiece. It should be the most impressive trophy case in the area and the school most certainly deserves a place to display its winning tradition.”