Ford Fundrasier Funds Delivered to ROHS Athletics

The generosity of Royal Oak Ford and the Ford Motor Company along with the hard working volunteers of the Royal Oak Athletic Department raised $6,580 in the fall Drive One 4 UR School fundraiser. The funds were officially awarded to the athletic department by Ford Hall, the commercial truck manager and community liaison for Royal Oak Ford.

The monies will be put toward renovating the school's weight room, which all athletic teams use, and for transportation costs. ROHS head football coach Ryan Irish is happy the auto company is helping the city.

"I'm happy that the Ford Motor Company is giving back to communities," Irish said. "And this allows the football team to interact with the community. It truly shows the generosity of Ford Motor Company and Royal Oak Ford."

Principal Jim Moll, who has participated in two of the three drive events, appreciates the generosity as well and knows there is a lot of hard work behind the scenes by the company.

"They are providing us with all the cars, all the gas, provide the daily insurance for the day, pay the guys who ferry the cars back and forth from their lot. It's a substantial expense on the part of Royal Oak Ford to run the event for us," Moll said. "And then they give us $6500 bucks - and they've done it three times."

Hall, a 1982 Kimball graduate, is happy to give back to his community and alma mater.

"We are giving back as much as we can," Hall said. "We see the benefits of it from people in the community buying cars from us where they didn't before - we've seen our numbers in Royal Oak go up dramatically. It's a lot of awareness. The program from Ford is phenomenal. They've given away millions of dollars."

First year ROHS athletic director Jim Cole also appreciates Ford's helping hand.

"The Ford people put on a great show," Cole said. "We had a lot of participation and a lot of enthusiasm and certainly a lot of support. It was fun getting the community together."