How The Grinch Swole Christmas
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Members of the Water Valley Powerlifting Team posed for a picture before handing out over 300 gifts to students at Davidson Elementary School Monday morning. Many of the high school lifters were exempt from exams and
WATER VALLEY – It’s a Grinch story that is hardly believable. The green fellow “swole” Christmas thanks to the Water Valley High School Powerlifting Team’s Second Annual North Swole Invitational as over 300 gifts were collected for students at Davidson Elementary School (DES).
“Our theme this year was ‘How the Grinch Swole Christmas,” powerlifting coach Vaughn Daniels reported about the weekend powerlifting meet at DES.
Almost 300 competitors from almost 10 schools competed in the meet. Each lifter brought an age appropriate toy in lieu of an entry fee typically paid by each participating school district. Daniels reported the idea was spawned last year after coaches challenged the power lifters to do something to give back to the community. That challenge prompted the first North Swole Invitational and over 160 gifts were collected. This year the invitational grew larger as 172 lifters competed Friday and 94 lifters on Saturday.
“We probably had close to 2,000 people in this little gym,” Vaughn said.
DES Pre-K student Sophia Walker gives her new Squishmallow, Monica, a hug. She was among hundreds of students at the elementary school who received Christmas presents from the powerlifting team.
The competition at the meet was intense and many of the teams were larger 5A and 6A schools, giving the competitors from the smaller 2A Water Valley school a tough challenge. The boys’ team placed third overall and the girls’ team placed fourth overall.
At the end of the meet Saturday, all of the gifts were separated by gender and the Water Valley power lifters returned to DES Monday morning to distribute the toys. Starting with Pre-K, each DES class lined up in the lobby and the high school students handed out the gifts.
“Our kids get more excited about giving back to the community than lifting weights,” Daniels noted.
