Athletes help deck the halls

  Friday, November 14, 2014 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

The Wilkinson house is ready for the holidays this morning thanks to a crew of Pitt State track athletes who spent Thursday evening putting up trees, stringing lights and placing treasured Christmas decorations throughout the house.

Every summer, during the auction at the Athletics Gorilla Gala fundraiser, Wendell and Lynda Wilkinson make sure they have the winning bid for the track athletes’ services. The payoff came Thursday.

“It’s a great help to us,” Lynda Wilkinson said as she directed the work going on throughout the historic home. “Kyle and Cody (the Wilkinsons’ sons) used to have to do all of this and it would take us days. These kids come in and we can get it done in about three hours.”

Although the students have taken on a large part of the work, Cody was still needed, Lynda laughed, “because we don’t know how to put these two trees together, so he always has to come in and supervise to get the trees together.”

Lynda said that as much as she valued the students’ help, she also enjoyed their company.

“It’s always a lot of fun to have them here and it’s always fun to meet the kids,” she said.

Wilkinson said her only regret was that when it’s time to take the decorations down and pack them away for another year, school will be out and the students will not be around to help.