“It’s good to help someone, so if you have the chance to do it, why not do it?” said Stephanie Soule, 15, and a ninth-grader at Northshore Junior High in Bothell.
Stephanie was one of a large number of the school’s ninth-grade students who gave up at least part of the their recent three-day weekend to put a successful cap on the school’s annual canned-food drive.
Students stationed at local Tops and Safeway supermarkets over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday were able to bring in almost 4,500 of the 7,772 cans of food collected.
The donated goods sat piled up in crates and boxes in the school’s gym last week, awaiting delivery to the local Hopelink food bank.
“We doubled what we were able to do last year,” said school Principal Josh Sanchez.
While the food drive directly benefitted Hopelink, Northshore teachers were inspired by international headlines, offering to donate 10 cents to help earthquake victims in Haiti for every can of food collected during the last weekend of the drive. Their announcement obviously motivated students.
“They (students) really picked it up,” said teacher Corey Martin, who organized the overall drive. He said teachers are on the hook for at least $450 or so that will go to Mercy Corps, one of the many charities helping in Haiti.
One class in particular seemed to be out and about over the last days of the drive, the homeroom of teacher Erin Ena. According to Martin, Ena’s students decided on their own to each give up at least one day of their long weekend.
“It was fun,” said Kyla Becker, 14, who added the canned-food drive has been a tradition at the school for some time. One student talked about a security guard at one store buying students doughnuts and telling them jokes.
In between various wisecracks, Erik Robbins, 14, said the idea was, obviously, to help people.
“It was important because we were helping families,” he added. Erik also said people seemed more willing than ever to donate when they discovered their donations would aid those in Haiti.
“In a way, it’s really terrible,” Danielle Goldenberg, 14, said of the earthquake and the resulting media reports, some of which she admitted have been tough to watch and read. But Goldenberg managed to also mention a positive.
“It’s great to see all the relief efforts,” she said. “Everybody is willing to help.”
Martin said the annual food drive is run through Northshore Junior High’s WEB (Where Everybody Belongs) program that includes about 90 ninth-grade students. Traditionally, the drive was held before the winter break, just in time for the holidays. Martin added that Hopelink officials suggested the school could do more good after the break, adding that, like many charities, Hopelink suffers a steep drop in donations after Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“People are still hungry after the holidays,” Martin said.
Neither Martin nor Sanchez could say why the drive was so much more successful than last year. Sanchez did say the school set a higher goal this time around.
“I think that helped,” he added. For his part, Martin agreed.
“I think, also, it was just the kids themselves, they really put themselves into it.”
