Northwest Halifax High School graduates have formed an alumni association to help inspire and raise funds for much-needed supplies at the school.

Their big goal is to raise funds to replace outdated textbooks for each student to use. “I think the biggest thing is to upgrade the books,” said Ta'She Jones Spencer, a 1998 graduate of the school and one of several grads leading the efforts of the alumni association. “The biggest push is to provide updated books. There's not enough books to take home and students have to make copies of the work they are doing.”

Another concern is a broken fire alarm in one of the buildings. “That's one of the few things we are trying to purchase. We're trying to reach out to the community doing fundraisers for the school.”

(More information on Saturday's game be found on the flyer attached at the end of this story)

The association has already done a paper drive for the school located off Highway 48.

The next big fundraiser will be Saturday with the Roanoke Valley Alumni Basketball game to be held at the school beginning at 11:45 a.m.

Planning for the event has gone well, Spencer said. “We've had about 35 who have paid to play. We have ten vendors. People are very excited. They're excited about the alumni group.”

Spencer said students in her graduating class faced some of the same issues present students faced. “It seems like the community was more involved. We had very active parent participation, a lot of my peers were involved. Even though we experienced the same issues, we still went on to higher learning. We had parents involved.”

Spencer, who admitted the transition to college was tough, graduated North Carolina State University with a bachelor's in political science and pursued and obtained a masters degree from Clark Atlanta University in criminal justice. She now works as a regulator for financial industries.

Through the alumni association, which consists of nurses, attorneys, teachers and even her mother — an electrician at KapStone, Spencer and the others want to show students that despite the circumstances, they can move on. “We want to let students know there are options.”

While still in its infancy, having started in January, the alumni association has other goals beyond the basketball game, planning to bring Levar Fisher, a North Carolina State football player and former NFL player, to the school so students can hear his motivational talks catered to different grade levels. That is planned for March 24, Spencer said.

She said the group is aware of past financial problems within the overall school system. “That's why our funds are going to be monitored by this organization and for where they need to be going.”

The bigger goal, she said, is inspiration for students. “We want to show them we excelled and exceeded, we made it. That's what we can give them, that hope and light at the end of the rainbow. It may be a struggle, but it's worth the struggle. We had people show us support, and we hope to get that community support.”