Canned Food Drive!

It's springtime and any teacher out there right now knows how LONG these days can be! Kids are squirming, talking all the time and doing things they haven't been doing in months! Today, however was a day that simply rejuventated me and reminded me of why I have chosen this profession! For the past two weeks the school that I work at, Horizons Elementary, has been holding a canned food drive for the Thurston County Food Bank. Each grade level was in competition with one another for who could bring in the most canned food items. The winning team of each grade would get to go to an assembly to make our principal and school counselor into human ice cream sundaes! The kids (and teachers) really got into the competition! I am proud to say that my first grade class brought in 686 cans in two weeks and ended up winning the competition for our grade level! But best of all, my students willingly helped out those in need which makes my heart very happy! When the announcements came on today to say that we had won at our grade level the screams of excitment were contagious! And best of all because the school surpassed our goal of bringing in 6,000 cans EVERYONE in the entire school ended up getting to go to the assembly! The assembly was filled with lots of screaming, cheering and whipped cream; something I know my students will not forget about for a very long time! In the end, our school brought in over 10,000 canned food items in two weeks! WOW! Way to go Horizons!

In a time where our world is changing this made me feel warm, happy and safe! I leave you with a story from one of my parents who came to visit our classroom this week. "My daughter was begging me to send in some more canned food this week. I told her that we had already sent food in last week and that this was the amount that I had wanted to spend on this. Finally she said that her daughter came back to her after a few minutes with some of her own money. She asked her mom if it would be okay if she could drive her to the store so that she could spend it on some more food for the canned food drive." Powerful stuff.

Have a wonderful weekend!