By Guest Writer Jaye Kimpel
Every year around the holidays, the Indian Trail High School and Academy National Honor Society and Key Club team up to form a food drive for people in need. From Nov. 27 to Dec. 17, every second period classroom collected an immense amount of nonperishable food items to donate to the Shalom Center in Kenosha, Wis.
The foldable boxes were donated to Indian Trail by Festival Foods. Skylar Farr, an Indian Trail Comprehensive Studies sophomore and Key Club General Member, enjoyed the experience.
“It was a very fun experience. It was a great opportunity to meet new people and make new friends,” Farr said. “It also felt good to know that I was helping my community. This was my first food drive after joining Key Club and, in my opinion, we did an amazing job at collecting, counting, and organizing all the food.”
Farr joined Key Club at the beginning of her sophomore year and this was her very first club service project. To get students engaged in the food drive, NHS and Key Club turned the food drive into a contest. Along with a competition with Tremper High School based on the total weight, the winning class who donated the most amount of food would get donuts for their contribution.
Kevin Stewart, Indian Trail’s orchestra teacher, was one of the winning contestants.
“This year, we had more food items that we’ve ever had before. There was an overall buzz around the food drive because we wanted to win,” Stewart said. “We wanted to win, and we did, but it wasn’t just about the prize- what felt better was that we helped those who need it during the holidays. Go Hawks.”
This year was Stewart’s second year teaching at Indian Trail, and his first year winning the prize of donuts to his second period class. NHS was also blown away by the overall results of the drive.
“I was ecstatic after seeing members of Key Club and NHS come together to collect numerous boxes of food donations,” said Nayef Hamdan, Medical Sciences Academy Senior, and NHS president. “It felt good to help contribute to it. Mrs. Martin was very kind and coordinated the event with utmost devotion. It wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without her, and I hope to see NHS repeat the food drive with her next year as well.
At the end of the event, over 1,300 food items were collected.
Students who would like to join National Honor Society, need to be going into Junior/Senior year, and be invited. If you have any questions, you can ask Nayef Hamdan or Mr. Jager. You can join Key Club at the beginning of any year. You can also sit it on meetings or participate in events. If you have any questions, you can ask Angelina Moore or Mrs. Martin. This event was made possible by Mrs. Martin and Mr. Jager.