NEWS

Hough High School (News of Davidson photo by Lyn Batty)

On Saturday, June 13, the Bailey's Glen-Hough High School Partnership will host the 2026 Partnership Car Show fundraiser at Hough High School, located at 12420 Bailey Road in Cornelius, N.C.  Bailey’s Glen is an active adult community located on Bailey Road, next door to Hough High School.

Jack Higgins, President Emeritus of the Bailey’s Glen-Hough High School Partnership, says that the Car Show has been a very successful fundraiser for the past several years. There is no cost to bring a car to the show, but Higgins says that donations to the Partnership are appreciated.

First and second place trophies will be awarded in the following classes: All Ford, All General Motors, All MOPAR, Foreign, Trucks & Jeeps, and Hot Rods.  A Best in Show vehicle will also be recognized. The car show will be held from 9:00 am - noon in the Hough High School parking lot. The rain date for the event is June 14.

A car previously entered in the Car Show

The Bailey’s Glen-Hough High School Partnership is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2014 to help support students and teachers at Hough High School. Over the past 12 years, the Partnership has awarded 485 Hough High student assistance and scholarship grants and 307 teacher grants, for a combined total of $186,000.

The Bailey’s Glen-Hough High School Partnership originally came out of a series of conversations over a decade ago among a group of Bailey’s Glen residents who made a habit of going out for meals together. The group called themselves the ROMEOs, an acronym for Retired Old Men Eating Out.

Jack Higgins was one of the ROMEOs. He was a recent transplant to North Carolina, a career educator who had served as Superintendent for several school districts in Ohio. Higgins recalls that the ROMEOs were surprised to learn that even within such an affluent area of North Mecklenburg, approximately 18% of the students at the public high school qualified for free and reduced lunch programs. William A. Hough High School has approximately 2,500 students, serving Davidson, Cornelius, and parts of Huntersville.

The Bailey’s Glen ROMEOs wondered what they could do to help Hough students who had financial needs that weren’t being met. At first, they decided to contact the school to see if they could put together a collection to provide a fund for Christmas presents for students in need. Over time, the Bailey’s Glen group formed relationships with Hough administrators, counselors, and teachers. Residents from Bailey’s Glen began to show up for Performing Arts programs at the school, becoming regulars at band concerts and choral performances. Large numbers of Bailey’s Glen residents began to purchase tickets every year for Hough’s highly-regarded spring musical.

In 2014, the group decided to form a 501(c)(3) organization so that they could hold fundraisers to increase the amount of money they could raise for the school.

The founding members envisioned a true partnership between Bailey’s Glen and Hough High School. They created a 9-member blended board. Five members are residents of Bailey’s Glen, and four members are from the high school community. The board of directors includes a Hough administrator, a Hough teacher, a Hough counselor or social worker, and one Hough student, usually a senior. Higgins says that the board has recently added another non-voting student member. That non-voting seat is reserved for a Hough junior, who will then serve as a full voting member of the board in their senior year. This provides a longer learning curve for the student member, giving them a full year to learn the workings of the board before they step into the leadership role in their senior year.

Higgins explains says that the Bailey’s Glen-Hough High School Partnership has developed three primary methods for supporting the school: scholarships, student financial assistance, and teacher mini-grants.

Each year, the partnership funds scholarships for six graduating students. Recipients are chosen based on financial need, academic achievement, and extracurricular activities. One of the scholarships is typically granted to the graduating senior who has served on the Partnership Board. The other five recipients are chosen from among many deserving applicants. The scholarship funds help to pay tuition for four-year colleges, community colleges, or trade schools. Higgins says that the scholarship is designed to support students with a wide range of educational and career goals. The amount of the scholarship has increased over the years and is currently $1,000.00 per student.

The Partnership also works closely with social workers and counselors at Hough to provide direct financial assistance to students in need. Direct support to students meets a variety of needs: books, college application fees, field trips, test fees, software/applications for specialized classes, and performing arts fees. Sometimes the needs are acute and critical: food, clothing, eyeglasses.

Finally, the Partnership provides a number of mini-grants each year to high school teachers. Higgins says teachers keep paying for basic classroom needs out of their own paychecks, and the Partnership likes to help with some of those expenses. Mini-grants have helped to provide classroom supplies that run out because of overstretched budgets or extra-large classes, toner for in-classroom printers that the school district no longer supports, specialized classroom items that make school more accommodating for students with special needs, and funds to help pay for conferences and training that teachers want but can’t afford.

The number of residents who live at Bailey’s Glen has increased greatly in the 12 years that the Bailey’s Glen-Hough High School Partnership has been in existence. Higgins says that after many years of running fundraising events like Casino Nights and Silent Auctions, the Partnership decided to try running an annual capital campaign to raise funds. The annual capital campaigns have proven successful, bringing in around $15,000 a year.

While it takes a lot of planning, the Car Show fundraiser is a very popular event with the Bailey’s Glen residents and the car-loving Lake Norman community. Higgins says in the past few years, the show has continued to steadily add more cars and more community sponsors. Typically, there are about 120 cars entered in the competition and over 20 different sponsors from local businesses. Higgins says it is exciting to see the different cars and all of the community support for a good cause.

The residents of Bailey’s Glen seem to get as much out of the Partnership as they put in. Higgins says that the residents understand the value of a quality education for every child and agree that education should be a community supported priority. Additionally, the residents often get to meet and interact with the wonderful students that they are helping to support. Higgins says that the community is treated to frequent on-site presentations from the talented students in Hough’s Jazz Band, Hough’s dance troupes, and Hough’s Howlin' Huskies, the Hough Choir who won the state title at the NCACA Show Choir Competition in April this year.

The Partnership looks forward to a sea of beautiful cars and many enthusiastic car aficionados on June 13 at Hough High School.

Please contact Jack Higgins at jhiggins119@gmail.com if you wish to volunteer or if your business would like to become a sponsor.