By Sara Hollar, Olympia High School Intern to ThurstonTalk
When Capital and Olympia High Schools co-hosted the Association of Washington Student Leaders conference in fall of 2014, the students didn’t know the effects of the event would be so far-reaching or long-lasting. Teens from across the state were getting to know each other, but leadership students from around Thurston County were also making important friendships. Friendships that would ultimately lead many local high schools to help more of their neighbors in need. The creation of a county-wide food drive encouraged cross-school cooperation and community involvement.
For years, high schools in the area have held food drives to help out the Thurston County Food Bank, often competing within their schools or against cross-town rivals. While swapping stories, advice and encouragement at the AWSL conference, Thurston County leadership students had an idea. They all worked together for the conference and were amazed by the amount of work they could do by banding together. The success of the event motivated the students to keep joining forces. It struck them that they could do a lot of good by collaborating instead of competing.
“We were all together at the conference thinking about how you can make a bigger difference working together versus working against one another,” says Emily Halvorson, Olympia High School’s student body secretary. The leadership classes wanted to put up a unified front and eventually, the county-wide food drive came to life.
Planning and communicating for the drive meant reaching across schools. Luckily, leadership is a group of dedicated students and administrators. Those involved spent the weeks preceding the drive and the time during it swapping emails, statistics, pictures and plans. It was no small feat keeping everyone in the loop but the leadership students managed to keep communication flowing. Updates from individual classes cheered the other schools on and push them to their own success.
All of the schools were working for the same cause but their methods varied. Many had incentive programs for classes with the most donations, ranging from pizza parties to breakfast served by the leadership class. Getting started was often the hardest part. Northwest Christian High School student body president Beka Behrens remembers how their drive had a slow beginning because students didn’t get really involved until the last few days. However, class competitions motivated more students to bring in cans.
Olympia High School Principal Matt Grant promised the student body a video of him rapping if they reached their donation goal. Incentives played a big role in increasing donations, but for many students the reasons for donating were much bigger. A large portion of families in the area receive food assistance from the Thurston County Food Bank on a regular basis. Students knew when they were donating they were helping out a fellow classmate or friend. Food drives are one of the easiest ways for schools to give directly back to their communities.
At every high school, students worked hard to rack up their donations, but some chose more unconventional methods. The choir and band or orchestra classes would sing and play around town for donations. North Thurston High School students also took advantage of new communication methods for their school. The leadership class got the word out about the food drive over their website, Twitter and Facebook. In addition, they set up a collection table in the Grocery Outlet in Hawks Prairie. The leadership class found everyone there very supportive and was grateful to those who donated items.
Tumwater High School teens also experienced the generosity of their neighbors when they collected cans door to door. Black Hills and South Sound High Schools used their morning announcement systems to keep the whole school caught up on their progress.
The kindness of their peers was enough to motivate any student. One Olympia High School freshman asked her parents for a donation to the canned food drive in lieu of a Christmas present. Students and administration were heartened to see that this kind of selflessness spanned across school lines. Black Hills High School student Alyssa Newmaker said, “The food drive is important to BHHS because we want to show pride in our community by giving back to those in need.” By the end of the food drive the community returned that pride in its teenagers.
As the drive came to a close, all the schools could agree on one thing, it was inspiring to see their student bodies come together to make a difference in their hometown. “The most surprising part of the food drive was at the end when we were boxing up all the donations and seeing how packed the hallway was with all the food boxes,” Newmaker said. Most schools had similar experiences as they watched the food pile up over the weeks but didn’t realize how much there was until the very end. The pride was undeniable as students packed up boxes and loaded trucks for the Thurston County Food Bank.
The work that each individual school did was ultimately part of a much bigger effort, one that spanned the whole county. It was a lesson for the students not only in the joy of helping their community, but of the power of collaboration. Leadership classes and their schools are hoping that the county-wide food drive becomes a tradition for years to come.
