School Spirit Fits Robinson Well
Laurie Partonen, above, and Kathy Skocik help raise money for Robinson's booster club by selling Rams clothes and souvenirs at games and on the Internet.
(By Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
When it comes to Robinson apparel and other paraphernalia, the school's "Oasis" concession area is like a college bookstore. Minus the books.
The school's booster club offers 25 items for sale on its Web site ( http:/
"When I first arrived here, I was given so much blue and gold Robinson stuff that my closet was full within a few weeks," said Robinson Principal Dan Meier, a former football coach at West Potomac and Chantilly. "It's incredible the variety that you see out there."
The items run from the relatively inexpensive -- $5 key straps, license plate frames, stadium cushions and foam fingers, and $8 Beanie Rams -- to the $50 embroidered wind jacket, available in S, M, L, XL and XXL. Within that price range are any number of sweatshirts, T-shirts, golf shirts, stocking hats, umbrellas, caps and visors.
Laurie Partonen and Kathy Skocik have handled the merchandise sales for the school's booster club for the past five years, sometimes squirreling away the gear in their garages. They trade ideas with as many as four vendors, tweaking designs and lettering and logos and adding new styles. (Good news, ladies: The $40 long-sleeved denim shirt is available in a women's cut this year.)
"My goal always has been just to offer spirit wear for kids and their parents so they're proud to wear Robinson things and it's still affordable," said Partonen, whose son, Jake, is a Robinson senior and whose daughter, Samantha, is a freshman.
Partonen estimates the booster club has netted about $10,000 on merchandise sales in the past two years.
The clothes and souvenirs are in particularly high demand now, with locker days and back-to-school nights, not to mention the home football opener Sept. 8. It helps that Robinson is a secondary school, with students in seventh through 12th grades on campus.
"The kids are Robinson Rams from the minute they leave elementary school," Meier said.
What new items might be in the incubation stage? A Robinson Visa card, perhaps?
"I'd be afraid to say it because it might happen," Robinson Coach Mark Bendorf said with a laugh. "It's pretty neat, though, to look up into the stands and see all that blue and gold."
