As expected, the annual FBLA Mission Life Basketball game was a great success. Students, teachers, community members and alumni in Piscataway gathered to watch a students vs. teachers basketball game. This year the event took place on Friday March 31 in the Anthony Gym at Piscataway High School.

While the high school hosts many events throughout the year, none are as big as the events run by the Piscataway FBLA. This is partly due to the strong establishment the club has built for itself and also the highly capable board members who keep FBLA’s name and the event legacy intact.

Mr. Michaels, FBLA advisor, says, “The L in FBLA stands for leadership, and the way you become a leader is by practicing. They make the phone calls, they make the contacts. The students chose the charity. I just gave them a few guidelines so that they can pick something more local and not something national where our contribution is one among a large sum so that we can have a more notable impact. They also interface with the charity”.

When organizing big events such as these, the officer needs to form partnerships with other school programs in order to conduct an event of such a large scale. When asked about overcoming such hurdles, Mr. Michaels said, “One of the things you may have noticed is food sales. So now we’re doing a cooperative effort with the athletic department to raise money for both the charity and the athletic department. It’s a new partnership that has its pros and cons, but we’re gonna take a look back at it to see how it works out”.

These extensive efforts to sell food, merchandise and tickets are all for one purpose – to give back to our Piscataway community. All the profits from the annual basketball event this year went to the Center for Food Action, or CFA, an organization whose mission it is to “prevent hunger and homelessness and improve the lives of individuals and families living in poverty.” FBLA president Aryan Agarwal mentioned that the charity was chosen by the FBLA members themselves. “We focus on charities that might be smaller but still have widespread impact in our local and national communities”, he says.

The officers also try to make the event as fun and enjoyable as possible. WIth a longstanding club like FBLA, there are certain traditions and activities that are important and keep the crowd’s energy up. With activities like the pieing and small games during the halftime as well as the performance by the cheerleaders, the crowd is able to stay involved and excited. With that of course comes reflection about things that were effective and others that were not.

Mr. Michaels says, “Well every year whether it’s a big event like the Super Bowl or something more local like this we always need to look at what went really well and keep that for the next year and then chuck out or improve on whatever didn’t work. Sometimes there’s things we’ve done historically that just aren’t working out anymore that need to be removed and replaced”.

We hope the up and coming officers are able to continue making this event successful and enjoyable for the students while also giving back to the community in a positive way.