On February 3rd, Hickman Booster Club hosted their annual fundraiser for the Hickman Athletics program. This is a banquet gathering that began in 2012. Hickman parents of students that have graduated continue to come back, which allow the Hickman event’s tradition to remain in their lives.
It is a reverse raffle drawing by gathering around 300 supporters, including parents, alumni, and various local corporations.

“Each person is given a number along with a nametag when entering,” King said. “The 300 person max comes from advertising to ticket-buyers that they have a 1-in-300 chance at winning the grand prize of $5K. The main excitement centered around the event comes from everyone’s chance at winning $5K, but also that second place in the drawing wins $750, and third receives $250.”

The person left at the end of the evening is then known as the “Last Kewpie Standing.”

Tickets have been sold online through the Hickman Athletic Booster Club website (HABC) for the third year in a row, as the link has been added to the HABC website in order to get rid of the paper tickets. In order for sales to increase and for this event to continue to gain popularity, students are encouraged to advertise tickets to parents and friends.

The purpose of the event is to benefit the Hickman Booster Club for athletics. As the event has grown and expanded, the location has shifted from the Hickman gym to Parkade Plaza, off of Business loop.

“The need for the location change came because of the idea of selling extra chance tickets for the grand prize being considered gambling,” King said.

Gambling is not allowed on school property, making it necessary to move so that ticket sales could increase. As the reverse raffle and extra chance tickets developed into a tradition, it became so popular and led to a lack of space for the attendees, providing another reason to change to a bigger location. As a result, the number of tickets sold increased, anc so did the amount of money going to Hickman Athletics.

Not only has the location changed, but the leadership making this event come together has changed as well. Hickman parents, King and Nikki Kuchta, are now the co-chairs in planning the night. Kuchta and King originally worked as a part of the Last Kewpie Standing Committee of Booster club,working to change the location in order to expand in 2016, shortly thereafter becoming co-chairs and have remained in place as leaders since.

Athletic director, JD Coffman, has a small role of simply attending and participating in the auction. JD Coffman’s role makes this event even more unique, by being an event run by a parent-committee for the students. Fundraising begins by reaching out to coaches and parents of Hickman teams. Each team that receives money in the end is first responsible for putting together a basket to be auctioned off. The silent auction allows interactions to occur between coaches, parents, and players outside of season, due to the collaboration and discussion yearly on what will be placed in the team’s basket, or item for the auction.

On February 3rd of this year, the band, Primitive Soul, played until 6:15. The microphone was then handed to Hickman parent and Boone County Commissioner, Fred Parry, to be the emcee for the night. Another addition to the event this year was a roaming photographer, who was able to capture the kewpie pride that filled the plaza.

The total amount of money raised reached approximately $34,500.

The money is then distributed through a grant process. The grants are written by coaches and then decided on by recipients of the board and Hickman Athletics Booster Club. If any Hickman parents are interested in helping and contributing their time to increase funding for Hickman Athletic programs, they should consider joining the Hickman Athletics Booster Club.

Tickets have been sold online through the Hickman Athletic Booster Club website (HABC) for the third year in a row, as the link has been added to the HABC website in order to get rid of the paper tickets. In order for sales to increase and for this event to continue to gain popularity, students are encouraged to advertise tickets to parents and friends.

Sponsoring companies, ticket-buyers, HABC, and Parkade Plaza all deserve the Hickman community’s gratitude for continuing and expanding the Last Kewpie Standing tradition for the sixth consecutive year.