Mount Si students looking to pass Go with game

Published 11:28 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE – The task of raising money for the 2007 Mount Si High School senior class is just a game to them.

Monopoly, to be exact.

The class officers have been going from business to business in the Valley trying to sell “properties” on the Snoqualmie Valley Monopoly Board to raise money for prom, graduation and other senior-year expenses. The game will serve as both a marketing tool and a keepsake for years to come.

“If we end up raising enough money, I know a lot of people who would like to have graduation at Safeco field,” said Jenna Barnes, a class officer. “If we raise enough money we’d like to have it somewhere like that or have prom somewhere like that.”

Barnes and a handful of other sophomores will be selling the advertising spaces until the end of January or early February. Properties cost $75 and spaces inside the center of the board are $100-$150.

The game works just like Monopoly and comes complete with all the pieces, but with a Mount Si flair. Instead of the shoe, the thimble and the little Scotty dog, students will pick symbols that mean something relevant to their school or class for the place-keeping figurines, such as a Wildcat, a cheerleader, etc.

Barnes said the students got the idea from a previous class advisor who used to work for Issaquah High School, where the Monopoly board fundraiser was successfully implemented 15 years ago.

“It brings the community together and gives people something to remember Mount Si by,” said Rachel Ulrich, one of the 2007 class officers.

After the students lay out a plan for the board, they will ship it to a Colorado company that designs board games for manufacturing. But they have a lot more selling to do before they get to that point. The students will stick closely to the design of the original Monopoly board, but with a few twists. For example, instead of a “Free Parking” corner, they may have a “Free Candy” corner spot with the Snoqualmie Falls Candy Factory logo.

“We’ve sold about eight spaces as it is now,” Barnes said. “We have to sell 50.”

The students started in Snoqualmie and are moving their way toward North Bend. Their advisor, Kathy Munoz, said the students still have high hopes for selling spaces on the board.

“They have not gotten as many businesses as they hoped,” Munoz said. “The idea is to make it a part of the city. I think it’d be a neat thing to have for people who graduated 20 years ago, to have a game from high school with lots of the businesses that were here when they were.”

Anyone interested in purchasing a space on the board to advertise their business may call Munoz at (425) 831-8204 or fellow advisor Kevin Knowles at (425) 831-8124.

Games will be available to the public for purchase from any Mount Si sophomore later in the school year.