Dierks High school (DHS) in the lead?
Not for long.
Many schools have convinced celebrities to post for them for more votes for the one-million dollar T-mobile challenge.
Lakeland High School (LHS) had already won $25,000 by Jacquie Neff, the social media manager for Lakeland, submitting photos of our field and sharing our story to T-mobile.
“I didn’t think we won, I didn’t think we even won the 5k we won last year, but that is when they told me,” Neff said.
LHS is in fourth place, with everybody hoping it is temporary. Most of the community has been voting everyday, with every email they have.
The school spirit has been like never before, with everyone being encouraged to wear pink at Friday’s football game. But it is still not enough.
That’s why LHS pulled out a card hidden under their sleeve.
Further Then the Community
The following of these social media influencers range from 4,900 to 386,000 followers! These are local “celebrities” that have agreed to support Lakeland by making videos and posting the voting link on their social media.
The influencers include Ethereal in E, A Little Hippy, Kelly Hughes band, and Jeremy Mccomb.
The brands participating in this promotion and support of Lakeland are Parker Toyota and Rathdrum Animal Clinic.
Even news anchors such as John Webb and Hailey Gunthner have spread the word to people.
Rob Gronkowski, or better known as “Gronk”, a retired football player who played for the patriots, helped put this on alongside other people.
Ethereal and E, one of the more popular social media stars, known for his peculiar talent of playing the handpan, posted the link on his Facebook. Almost immediately, he got comments under the post, begging him to take it down. He had posted Dierk High School’s voting link on accident and quickly changed the mistake.
Others posted on all social platforms they could, like Twitter and facebook.
Ziya Munyer posted for LHS, promoting the vote to her audience.
Despite the fact that she doesn’t have as big a following as the local influencers, her impact will be huge on the voting, adding in students at her college.
Neff reveals how she initially reached out to these influencers.
“Mainly it’s a situation of ‘I know a person who knows a person’,” Neff said.
While there are already some pretty big names advertising for Lakeland, Neff is taking it to the next level.
“The two most common names are Mark Wahlberg and Sydney Sweeney,” Neff said. “So Mark and Sydney, if you’re out there and want to help, send the Lakeland Facebook page a message and I’ll get back to you,”
There is no shortage of sense of community in Rathdrum, a small town full of love for Lakeland.
But this will take more than just Rathdrum. This will take Idaho, too.
“We need the whole state of Idaho to rally around us,” Neff said, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we should really give it our best shot.”
“It will take everyone in the school and in the community working on this for us to win,” Neff said.