Editor’s Note: Peter McNeely is one of the sports editors of the New Trier News and is a member of the Tri-Ship board. He was not involved in the writing, reporting, or editing of this article.
As New Trier High School’s Tri-Ship marks its 100th anniversary this year, students are set to choose the future leaders of the club.
Running for president of Tri-Ship are two juniors and current members of the club: Charlie Gainer and Harrison Miller.
Gainer wants to promote the values of inclusivity, rigor, and resilience. He also said that restoring the culture of the club is a top priority for him, which he thinks he can accomplish by bringing back traditions and forming new ones.
“This year, I feel like we’ve lost some of our traditions,” Gainer said, “so I want to bring back the culture.”
He also noted Tri-Ship’s president from last year, Gus Collins, as someone he worked with and sees as a mentor.
Miller agreed with Gainer in terms of priorities for next year.
My favorite part of Tri-Ship is the people, the relationships you get to build with people you wouldn’t have met otherwise. — Charlie Gainer
“We’ve lost the culture a little bit this year,” Miller said. “I think that does stem partially from a leadership standpoint, so I want to try and restore that the best I can.”
Miller also highlighted his experience, as he currently serves as the junior class chairman of Tri-Ship. He believes that his passion and involvement in the club make him a strong candidate, in addition to being a good communicator.
100 years after Tri-Ship was formed at New Trier, the club still has a strong impact in the community through fundraising for the New Trier Scholarship Fund. The club organizes and runs fundraisers, such as the widely-successful tree sale in the winter, which they have been doing for more than 40 years.
Gainer believes that success starts with the camaraderie and relationships within the club and community.
“My favorite part of Tri-Ship is the people, the relationships you get to build with people you wouldn’t have met otherwise,” he said.
Miller echoed similar sentiments.
“I’ve made some of my closest friends in this club, people that I never thought I’d meet,” he said. “And I believe I can make this club the best it possibly can be.”
Additionally, the two candidates running for vice president of Tri-Ship are juniors Shea Kreisa and Zach Perchik.
“I believe the big role of [the vice president] is to create a great atmosphere within Tri-Ship,” Perchik said. “There’s not a lot of atmosphere within the club anymore. It’s just a lot of people sitting on their phones, not really talking to each other, and not a lot of integration between different grades.”
Kreisa wants to be a right hand man to the president, whoever it may be, and work toward their priorities.
Perchik, in his third year as a member of Tri-Ship, has learned a lot since freshman year and thinks he is ready to take on a leadership position in the club.
“It’s cool seeing that last year I was the one being taught how to do all this stuff, and now this year I’m the one teaching the younger guys how to do it. It’s just a really cool process.”
Kreisa said his favorite memories with Tri-Ship are working the steak sales at home football games, another way that the club raises money to support the community.
In addition to president and vice president, students will elect officers for three other positions in Tri-Ship: secretary, treasurer, and junior class chair.
The candidates for secretary of Tri-Ship are juniors Morgan McCalla, Max Moudy, and Boden Rice.
For treasurer, the candidates are juniors Peter Conkey, Connor Hirschtritt, and Thomas Terry.
And for junior class chair, the candidates are sophomores James Berman and Walker Chessen.
On Friday, Feb. 23 the candidates filmed videos which will be shown in adviseries. All sophomores and juniors are eligible to vote in the elections, and voting will end at noon on Friday, Mar. 8.