Viewfinder: Tricky Tray Benefits High School’s Academy of Finance

More than 100 people attended the Tricky Tray hosted by Fort Lee High School’s Academy of Finance (AOF) class of 2011 Friday. The seniors in the program, who were responsible for organizing the event, wore white t-shirts with vendors listed on the back.

AOF Senior Peter Liapes said the event was made possible by and put together through “a lot of work and preparation.”

“We, (the students of AOF) called businesses, visited them in person to solicit donations and offer advertisements,” Liapes said, adding “Mrs Cohn (an AOF faculty member) did a phenomenal job with this event, keeping us on task.”

Marsha Shnyder, another AOF senior, compared AOF to a family, saying, “I love AOF.”

“We called all the businesses, used scripts, received the donations and made the baskets and took care of advertising,” Shnyder said.

She added that she was surprised “so many people” turned up for the event.

One adult in attendance Friday, who chose not to give a name, talked about how how "great" it was to witness the AOF program "in effect."

“These young men and women have been learning about business for several years and had the opportunity to use that knowledge firsthand," she said. "They dealt with identifying a means of profit and began their journey. They identified and researched potential customers and vendors, developed a plan to execute this event and managed finances, people and product. They did a great job and had smiles on throughout the evening. I hope that the administration and people of Fort Lee can see how valuable this program is.”