On April 19th, 2024, the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) for Piscataway High School (PHS), hosted their annual charity basketball game. This year, the students crushed the teachers 78-69. FBLA generated about $4,900 and they donated all the money towards the Embrace Kids Foundation charity.
When I asked Shrushti Girsih, the president of FBLA, about her favorite aspect of hosting this year’s charity basketball game, she emphasized the importance of rallying the community to give back to people in need.
“There’s something truly special about bringing people together through sports, especially when it’s for a greater purpose like raising money for charity,” said Shrushti. “But what really made it special for me was knowing that our efforts were making a real difference in people’s lives.”
This isn’t the first time Mr. Critelli, the FBLA advisor for PHS, hosted an event this year, but he stresses how he gives the freedom to his officers to host and run all their events without any limitations.
“There is no aspect of this club that is not run by the [students],” said Mr. Critelli. “I’m there behind the scenes to make sure that anything [the students want] can happen. The execution of the event is all entirely on the [students]. I’m confident that my students will get the job done.”
Every event presents some challenges and this year FBLA experienced some issues with their t-shirts. However, one PHS teacher provided solutions to make the charity basketball event run back normally.
“We had an expected issue with our t-shirt vendor just three hours before the start of the game,” said Shrushti. “But luckily our school’s talented Print and Production teacher, Mr. Ward, was able to offer us effective last minute solutions to complete our t-shirt order.”
All of the FBLA officers and volunteers definitely learned a lesson from hosting this year’s charity basketball game, and Shrushti is able to learn some leadership and problem solving skills.
“I learned the importance of leadership and teamwork,” said Shrushti. “But being able to adapt, think, on my feet, and come up with creative solutions was essential to overcoming these obstacles.”
While this year’s charity basketball game may have some hurdles, Mr. Critelli is thankful to all of his members for being in charge of all of their events they hosted this year.
“The [FBLA students] run the show because they’re very capable and I thank all of them,” said Mr. Cretelli. “All of [our events] are not possible without them.”
