School drive gathered lots of food

Sisters High School classes competed to bring in the largest amount of food in a holiday food drive. Everybody won. Photo by Rongi Yost

In just one short week the students at Sisters High School gathered more than 6,500 cans of food and non-perishable food items to be distributed to families in the community through the Kiwanis Food Bank.

It took several trucks to haul all the food away.

Kiwanis members arrived at the high school Thursday afternoon, December 19, to pick it all up. Glenn Keeran, chairman of the food bank, looked at the piles of food stacked outside in front of the high school and said, "Wow! This is just tremendous! We appreciate this so much. What's so fantastic is how the kids really got involved in this effort."

Keeran said that both October and November were record months for the Food Bank, and they served more families in those months than ever before. He noted that the students' donation equaled what they would receive every six weeks from the Oregon Food Bank.

"I believe this is the largest one-time donation we've ever received," said Theresa Slavkovsky of Family Access Network (FAN).

Michelle Herron, activities coordinator at the high school, reported this was the most food the students had ever brought in.

The drive began as a class competition, and the kids all bought into it. They were given one week, from Wednesday, December 11, to 3 p.m. on December 18 to bring in as much as they could.

"It was just amazing!" Herron said. "The kids really got into the spirit of it. Yes, it was a class competition, but the kids really saw the need and realized it was something they could do.

"It was a great combined effort, and took many, many people working and contributing to get this much food," Herron said. "The community was also involved. Our kids canvassed door to door. If there wasn't anyone at home they left a note and an empty bag and later went back to pick up the food."

Herron hardly had room for students in her classroom by the time the week was up. Boxes and bags of food were piled all over the tables, and stacked along the walls.

Mary Flande, a freshman class advisor, gave the freshmen a challenge at the class meeting when instructions about the food drive competition were being given. She challenged each one to bring just one can of food to her office and told them what a difference that would make.

"It was the neatest thing," Flande said. "The whole freshman class did it! They worked together and it took every one of them to make it happen. They got excited and then just fed off of each other.

"It was a big thing for the freshmen to collect more food than the seniors," she said. "Even the parents of our freshmen got involved and got just as excited as the kids. Since most of the freshmen can't drive, parents drove and took the kids door to door. The credit goes to both the kids and their parents."

Freshman Michaela Bennett said, "What really made us get going was when we found out we were so close to the seniors. Around here the freshmen are kind of getting a bad rep and we wanted to change that and the competition really got us going. What Ms. Flande said to us about each bringing in a can of food really helped too. I think almost everybody did it.

"I think at the moment we just wanted to beat the seniors," Bennett said, "but then we realized what had been accomplished, we thought, 'Whoa! This is really gonna do a lot of good.'"

Anna Pepperling, another freshman, admits she'd never really been excited about any of the class competitions before.

"I decided I wanted to get involved with this one because it was for such a good cause," she said. "Some friends and I went around our neighborhood and in just one evening collected almost 200 cans of food."

Vice Principal Bob Macauley summed it all up.

"The enthusiasm generated in the class competition was inspiring," Macauley said. "There are needs in this community that this food drive will meet. It really connected the students to the community and that's important. It shows an appreciation for a giving community that provides the students with so much."