By Mary Stewart
Annette Newsom doesn''t want to reveal the secret plan of attack for this year yet, but she and her high school students plan to win the grand prize again, for a second year in a row.
Orem High School students won $5,000 to go toward their Fall Homecoming Dance last year by participating in the University Mall''s 'Shop for Dance Dollars' competition, which is going on again now until Aug. 23.
'The kids work really hard, and it''s a big deal,' said Newsom, Orem High''s student council advisor.
The competition was designed to give something desirable back to the community and to encourage back-to-school shopping said Mindi Nordfelt, the marketing director for the University Mall.
Last year, after deciding on the marketing strategy of giving back to the community, the University Mall brought in local high school students for a focus group and asked them what they would want if the mall was to give something away. The students said funds for activities.
'It seemed like the overwhelming majority of the students wanted money for a dance,' Nordfelt said.
In response, the mall designed the 'Shop for Dance Dollars' competition where for every dollar spent at the mall, the customer can chose to take his or her receipt to the customer service desk and request that the purchase go toward points for the high school of choice. For each dollar spent, the school receives the equivalent amount of points.
By the end of August last year, Orem High had accumulated more than 92,000 points, beating all the other local high schools. Timpanogos High School came in second.
When asked if she thought the idea of spending money for competition sake was a good idea, Newsom said she still doesn''t like that aspect of the competition, but she said if a customer is going to shop at the mall they may as well take advantage of their receipts and put the points toward the school of their choice.
Melanie Harding a former employee of Nordstrom said she would encourage her customers to take their receipts up to the service desk and put the points toward the high school of their choice. However, she said she pushed for Orem because her children go there. Her son Brennan Harding, Orem High''s upcoming student body vice president, along with the Student Body President will head this year''s campaign.
Harding said she jokes Orem''s win should be attributed to her for encouraging her customers to support Orem High.
But, Harding and Nordfelt agreed, the students were the primary source of the win.
'We do a huge grassroots campaign with the high school students,' Nordfelt said. 'We''ve sent them letters informing them of the competition as well as fliers they can distribute and make copies of to distribute, and I''ve been told through some high school students ... that they have done that.
Nordfelt said students have put fliers in some of the new registration packets as well as going door to door in their neighborhoods.
'You know kids,' Nordfelt said. 'They just use their own little networks to let people know.'
Since the goal of the campaign is to give back to the students, Newsom said she supported the University Mall giving the funds to the students to use to their own discretion.
'I wouldn''t turn it over to the administration because it will get used for books or something,' Newsom said.
97.1 ZHT''s radio disk jockey Dangerboy hosted the dance last year and is doing it again this year.
Newsom said the Homecoming dance was a big success. She said students from other schools whom she''d never seen before showed up.
'Kids were coming out of the woodwork,' Newsom said. 'It was fun.'
Nordfelt said to encourage even more people to get involved with the competition this year, schools with more than 10,000 points will win $500; schools with more than 20,000 points will win $1,000, and the school with the most points will again win $5,000.
For current statistics on the competition or to contribute to the local high schools, visit the University Mall''s customer service desk where the points are tallied and posted daily.