The annual LRHS Food Drive ended on Thursday, December 1. Leesville ended in the Wake County competition with 2,218 pounds of food and $15,031.32 raised and donated to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.
Leesville Middle School also collected donations for the food drive and contributed their earnings to LRHS’ total. LRMS collected around 2,705 pounds of food and placed second overall amongst Wake County schools.
Leesville raised more in the two week period than ever in the school’s history. The previous record was just over $13,000.
On Saturday, December 3 executive student council members volunteered their morning to take all collections to the Food Bank of CENC’s Raleigh location.
Sarah Martin, student body president, enjoyed this experience greatly. “It was such a good feeling to see the employees excitement over our huge donation.”
Leesville volunteers were given a tour of the facility by a Food Bank employee and had the opportunity to see the inner workings of the organization from the loading dock to sorting stations to storage.
Preston Nix, junior, enjoyed helping with the food drive for the second time. “I like the idea that I’m helping towards a cause that really gives back to people who are less fortunate than myself.” Towards the end of the drive, Nix was encouraged by the increasing donations and large number of cans.
“The fact that Sanderson’s food drive is year long made me have my doubts about our own success, but when I saw how fast the donations were coming in, I really started to believe that we could win [against Sanderson].”
Unfortunately, Leesville did not win the Wake County competition against Sanderson High School, who collected a total of $43,000 for their food drive and donated a total of 222,668.1 pounds to the Food Bank.
Catherine Sollie, executive council advisor and Spanish teacher, was encouraged by the comparison of Leesville’s numbers to Sanderson’s. “When their total was announced, I was even more impressed with our school because we raised a third of what [Sanderson] raised in a year in only two weeks!”
Martin and Nix only expect for collections and involvement to improve as Leesville grows. “I think that showing the video at the start of the drive really helped inspire donations from students and teachers,” said Nix.
“Now that we’ve broken a school record and students know that our goal is to beat Sanderson [in final totals], I think that in the future we’ll see more involvement and bigger numbers,” predicted Martin.
Nix agrees that Leesville can only expect better from its students, faculty and community in the future. “As we learn what to do to influence others to donate, our numbers can’t go anywhere but up.”
Virginia Reed is a superb writer and an even better friend. She enjoys unhealthy foods and writing sarcastic articles. Virginia is the Online Editor for the 2011-12 school year and was a Managing Editor for the 2010-11 year but has not forgotten her humble beginnings as a staff writer when she was a wee sophomore. Her goals for the future are to get an A in newspaper and to apply to college in a timely fashion.
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