Lemont High School shows off their school spirit for Orange Friday

LEMONT, Ill. - Orange Friday celebrated one of the Chicago area's oldest high schools, Lemont High School, established in 1890.

National Honor Society officers Mitchell Sowa and Ula Gedgaudas announced that their organization has been awarded the Service Award of Excellence, one of six schools in Illinois to receive the distinction.

"We’re going to be raising money and donating to local food pantries in our community. We’re going to be fundraising $50,000 total and donating 125,000 meals," Sowa said.

Student Ella Simpson talked about the school’s new initiative, Gold Rush.

"Gold Rush is a student run and led spirit group that was created to ensure that we bring spirit and pride back to all of Lemont activities and athletics," Simpson said.

Principal Eric Michaelsen said the school has a great welcoming environment which shows a lot of support for the Chicago Bears.

"The community of Lemont supports Lemont High School and we have a great group of students ," Michaelsen said. "We have a wonderful faculty and staff as well. I was the head football coach at Lemont and now principal for the last 11 years. I’m a huge Bears fan. When the Bears win, we play the ‘Bear Down, Chicago Bears’ song every Monday morning."

Lemont takes special pride in its athletics department, including the baseball team.

"Last year we ended up going to state. We ended up losing. We got second place and we were super young. We had about seven juniors that started the game so we're looking to do the same thing next year," Jacob Parr said.

Jordan Cryer, showed off her ring awarded for capturing the state cheerleading title. 

"We have many accomplishments, one of which, we did win state this year," Cryer said. "On the side [of our ring] there's a seven right there. We have won seven state championships and we’ve also brought home 15 trophies."

Lemont's football team will travel to play Thornton Fractional South on Friday night.

"In the last 20 years, we’ve qualified for the playoffs 19 seasons," football coach Willie Hayes said. "Out of that 19, we’ve made it to the quarterfinals 12 times, three state finals appearances. So, we’re pretty dominant in the 6A program."