Edmond North High School raises money for charity

All three of Edmond's high schools hold fundraisers each year for different charities, but they also pick a “common thread” charity, which gets 5 percent of the money raised. This year's Common Thread is A New Leash on Life, which provides assistance dogs to people who need them, Hunter said.

The group trains dogs to assist people with disabilities, therapy dogs to visit the elderly and children learning to read or in therapy, and companion dogs who are rescued from shelters and trained by prison inmates, according to the group's website.

BALTO events

Last year, North surpassed its goal of $201,200 to raise $285,145 to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

This year's fundraising activities at North have included:

• Gathering of pledges by “candidates” from each class.

• A “Boy Bands” competition.

• A bake-off.

• A black light dance.

• Competitions pitting classes and boys and girls against each other.

• DECA fashion shows.

• Sale of T-shirts and food.

BALTO Week, which started in 1995, takes its name from Balto, a husky who led a sled dog team to deliver lifesaving diphtheria medicine to Nome, Alaska, in 1925. Edmond North's mascot is a husky.

Contributing: Staff Writer Nasreen Iqbal