Tiger Den Wins Big

Nara Markowitz, Staff Writer

A Starbucks may not actually be made in front of school soil, but that’s okay because the Tiger Den at EHS is here to stay.

All of the FLS student’s hard work has now been recognized after EHS won the Those Who Excel award sponsored by District 7.

“Everyone in the district votes for this,” FLS teacher Chris Sumpter said. “So the winners are truly only programs that have made a large impact to the schools.”

And with the Tiger Den run like a legitimate business—making and selling coffee and pastries even available for delivery—its cookies and lattes have become popular staple foods of EHS.

“The strawberry lemonades are so delicious I have to keep all my money at home or else I’d go broke,” chemistry teacher Grace Bannon said. “The service is quick and friendly too.”

After a celebratory banquet on May 4, the tigers will advance to the next round of competition where they hope to get recognized at the state level.

The state competition consists of having a teacher, parent and student write a letter of recommendation for the program which will hopefully be appreciated by the voters of the competition.

Senior Niki Opel, selected to be the student to write the letter, gushed about his Tiger Den friends’ growth throughout the school year in his letter.

“Since we usually just focus on day-to-day work, looking back and seeing how much we’ve actually accomplished is surprising and amazing,” Opel said. “It makes me proud.”

Tensions will be high for the next couple of weeks before the results are announced and Opel is already nervous.

“I just don’t want anything to go wrong,” Opel said.

“The Tiger Den is such a great space to be, it deserves to be noticed by the world.”