On Saturday, November 3, the girls’ soccer team’s annual car wash fundraiser occurred at Fancy Fruit and Produce in Orange City. Taking place from 9 am to 1 pm, the team raised a total amount in upwards of 800 dollars, which will primarily go to new uniforms, bags and equipment.

Through pre-sale tickets and same-day sales, the girls raised a sizable amount which should offset the cost of future team expenses. Roughly 135 tickets were pre-sold before Saturday’s event. Anyone who went through the car wash without a ticket was encouraged to make a donation to the team.

More than just a fundraiser, the car wash also provided the team a chance to bond and get closer to one another, with the presence of laughter, spraying each other ‘by accident’ with the hose and singing along to music.

“Other than practices, [the car wash] was the first time we actually got to hang out and bond together,” senior Deborah Rumer said. “And being new on the team it is kind of nerve-wracking, especially if you’re a senior… I think it brought us a lot closer.”

Teammates bonding with one another can help the everyone cooperate and dominate during matches. Saturday’s event gave the players a chance to practice their teamwork skills.

“We washed and dried cars working together as a team to make sure we did our best job,” freshman Nicole Diaz said. “Drying the cars, I think was the hardest thing because of water streaks. We did our best to make sure there weren’t any, but it wasn’t easy.”

In addition to drying off the cars, some of the girls also had to dry off after getting sprayed accidentally by whoever was holding the hose.

“I didn’t get much experience holding the hose,” Diaz said. “But I did get a lot of experience being sprayed by it. Along with most people. Most of it wasn’t intentional but it was all very funny.”

While getting sprayed with the hose could be a funny way to joke around, the hose itself was slightly awkward to wrangle, and whoever was in charge of it had to be careful not to trip her teammates while rinsing suds from the cars.

“The hose got caught on the tires almost every time I tried to get around the car,” junior Madison Leake said. “It was getting stuck on the tires or someone would accidentally step on it.”

Despite the unwieldiness of the hose, the team managed to have fun and take home a substantial sum in the process.

“I did have fun,” Leake said. “We were all goofing off and singing as we worked which made for lots of fun.”