By: Jordan Frantz and Alexis Lemieux

Over the past few weeks, a variety of clubs at Bellbrook High School have been giving back to the community. The school has had three food and hygiene drives that have all been donated to a local group in need. Student Government, AF JROTC, and Kindness Club have helped gather items and distribute them to the Bellbrook Community Center. 

TEACHER TURKEY

Teacher Turkey is a yearly fundraiser organized by the freshmen officers of Student Government that the high school participates in. The officers select four teachers and then students donate to the teacher they want to see in the turkey costume. The teacher that gets the most donations wears the costume and the runner up gets the pleasure of wearing the pilgrim outfit. Mr. Carreira was the turkey and Mr. Reinhart was the pilgrim this year.

This year Teacher Turkey competition took place between November 18-21.

In the past, the students have collected money for charities. However, this year the officers chose to collect personal items. “We chose to do personal items because we have some other great groups within the school who collect canned goods for charity during November,” freshman class adviser Mrs. Tompkins said. The teacher turkey fundraiser collected deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, tissues, toilet paper, household cleaner, and laundry detergent. 

“In years past, we have donated to organizations that had a personal connection with a member of our school community,” Mrs. Tompkins said. “Our charity last year was Ellie’s Rainy Day Fund, which helps families in crisis provide critical care for their pets. Two years ago we raised money for The Unverferth House, which provides housing for heart transplant patients while they recover, so they can be close to Ohio State University hospital.”

COMMUNITY FOOD DRIVE

Another fundraiser that took place at the high school through the month of November was the AFJROTC community food drive. This food drive runs from October all the way to December. 

 “Each week, different neighborhoods around Bellbrook are selected for cadets to collect non-perishable items Saturday morning,” AF JROTC leader Col. Gangaware said. “Fliers are passed out in the selected neighborhoods to let residents know what we’re collecting and then on Saturday morning, cadets go door to door to collect donations.  Once collected, cadets take everything over to the Bellbrook Community Support Center and help sort the items and place them on shelves, ready to be distributed to those in need throughout the week.”

The food drive collected 7,567 non-perishable items. It consists of 6,231 pounds of food, 260 pounds of non-food items, and 5,271 meals for community members in need. The items the drive collected were non-perishable foods. Such as canned foods, peanut butter, rices, pastas, cereals, and the drive also collected hygiene products. 

CLASSROOM FOOD DRIVE

The Kindness Club is run by three students: Emma Jenkins, Alexis Jiovani, and Makayla Skinner. Kindness Club participated in a food drive to help individuals who are food insecure. 

In order to get as many donations as possible, the club made it a friendly competition between the first period classes at the high school. The first period who raised the most donations was awarded Bill’s donuts. Mrs. Lewis’s first period class won by collecting 44 items.