Over the last few years, Petal High School sophomores Kayla Dobson and Kinley Hogue had caught word about “Powder Puff” sporting events – including a recent flag football game at the high school – being organized to raise funds for worthy causes.
That led the girls to wonder how they could put together a similar venture to contribute to the Addison Morgan Scholarship Fund in honor of Petal Upper Elementary student – and daughter of high school counselor Melissa Morgan – Addison Morgan, who was killed in a car accident in August 2019. Together, Kayla and Kinley, who are both volleyball players, led the charge to hold a Powder Puff volleyball game in mid-December, raising approximately $1,800 for the fund, which is overseen by the Petal Education Foundation.
“We just felt like (the game) was for the school, and it was for enjoyment, and it could just be a really good memory for (Addison),” Kayla said. “Our counselor, we got to get closer to her, and we thought that would be a good way to take the money and give it to a good cause.”
To get the game organized, Kayla and Kinley met with school administration to get permission, recruited participants and coaches, designed and ordered T-shirts and attended and led meetings.
“We got it approved, and we had a lot of meetings on how we were going to handle that,” Kayla said. “It was totally me and (Kinley) – we had all the meetings and we made all the decisions.”
After recruiting enough students – with boys playing and girls coaching – the game was on, with all proceeds and concession sales going to the scholarship fund.
“It was a lot more successful than we thought it would be,” Kinley said. “We decided to do it (for) Addison, because we thought it would be a pretty good way to start this off for the first year.
“We wanted to make it to where it could be an every-year thing, so it could just keep going and we could hopefully make a tradition out of it. We’ll see how it goes, but we’ll look to at least contribute to the scholarship every year, and we might do spread out more with it as well.”
Kinley said the first indication that the event was going to go well was the interest she and Kayla received when they first began taking sign-ups for participants.
“We had over 100 people sign up in the very beginning,” she said. “Of course, that kind of dwindled a little bit, but the turnout from the community and the support throughout the school made it go really well.”
High school principal Rob Knight said he was proud that Kayla and Kinley organized the event for the students, but especially in honor of Addison.
“To me, that just really says a lot about our kids and the things that they care about,” he said. “It took a lot of work, a lot of planning and a lot of coordinating, and so they put in a ton of hours to make it happen.
“It was a lot of fun for our kids and a good experience for them, and also a life lesson of a real world experience, where they had to coordinate the logistics, order T-shirts and talk to adults about getting them involved. So it was a good experience for them that they can use in their life, and I was just so proud of them because their heart was in the right place.”
