Freedom High School (Tampa, FL) NJROTC (Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Command) recently qualified for the State Finals in Florida for NJROTC competitions. This is quite the accomplishment as only twenty schools across the state of Florida qualify for this event. We were informed on February 8th that we had qualified and this competition takes place on March 5th, 2022 so we are definitely short of time.

 

Although qualified, our unit must fund the trip ourselves. What is NJROTC and why is this important? The purpose of NJROTC is to promote patriotism and develop informed and responsible citizens. We also promote habits of orderliness and precision. Some of our other goals are to develop a high degree of personal honor, self-reliance, self-discipline, and leadership within our cadets. The State Competition is the culmination of a years worth of work by our cadets at multiple other qualifying competitions. At these competitions the cadets compete in different events to include: drill, personnel inspection, civic and military knowledge, physical fitness, and other similar events. In addition to all the competitions our students are involved with, they also do a lot of community work. They are active in the Adopt-A-Road trash cleanup program, they volunteer at local VA nursing homes, they provide support for various non-profit events (Relay for Life, Arthritis Walk, Climb For Air), and they also provide color guards for veterans events in the local Tampa area.

 

While the demographics of many schools result in a situation where money is not an issue for them, we do not fall into that category (Freedom High School is a Title I school). The NJROTC unit receives no funding from the district/school and so events like this often stretch what is financially feasible for us. In order to attend this competition, we must provide our own lodging overnight as well as our own transportation to and from the competition which is located in Orlando this year. The individual cost for this is out of reach for many of our students and their families. This is why we are reaching out. You may ask: Why are we using a crowd funding/donation site for this? Due to restrictions placed on NJROTC by the state and district regarding fundraising we are extremely limited as to how we are allowed to raise money.

 

We are taking forty-five cadets and must provide transportation, lodging, and food for them. For many of these students this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete at this level. Our goal, our hope, with this fundraising is to provide this opportunity to our students. Many times you hear people say “every little bit helps” and in this case that is absolutely the true. Thank you for taking the time to read this and we appreciate all help provided more than we can express.