Katie Smith presents a check for $442 to PCHS principal Gary Odom. Smith raised the money through lemonade sales at this summer’s Phil Campbell Hoedown Festival. Photo by Kellie Singleton.

PHIL CAMPBELL – The new Phil Campbell High School campus will look a little bit nicer thanks to the generous donation from one of its own students.

This past week, PCHS seventh grader Katie Smith presented PCHS principal Gary Odom with a check for $442 that she raised this past summer through lemonade sales.

For the fourth year in a row, Smith operated “Katie’s Lemonade” at the Phil Campbell Hoedown Festival in June.

Each year, Smith has operated the stand with the purpose of donating the proceeds from the lemonade sales to a worthy cause in the community.

“I just really like helping my community and doing things for others,” Smith said.

“It’s been a great feeling the past few years to be able to help out with different projects, and I just wanted to continue to do that this year.”

Smith had her first lemonade stand in 2011 and donated the profits toward the new playground at Phil Campbell Elementary School that was being built to replace the one destroyed just a month earlier by the E-F5 tornado.

In 2012, Smith raised money for her classroom at PCES so each student would be able to go on a field trip to see a ‘Peter Pan’ play.

And last year, Smith noticed that the school library at PCES could use some new books, so she donated her proceeds to the school so the librarian could pick out books that younger children would like to read.

This year when she started seventh grade, she became part of the first class that will complete all their high school years at the new Phil Campbell High School, so Smith decided she wanted to raise money that would benefit her new school.

Odom said the money Smith raised would go toward a bench that will be placed outside the school for students and others to enjoy.

“We appreciate Katie’s generosity and her willingness to raise money for our school,” Odom said.

“This bench will be a great addition to our campus and something people will be able to enjoy for years to come.”