District schools competed to out-donate one another. Reigning champion Cherokee High School finished in first place once again.
The Lenape Regional High School District recently finished its seventh year of participating in the Give to Goodwill Competition, in which the year LRHSD collected a total of 89,585 pounds in donations to give to Goodwill.
Students, teachers, staff, and family members at each school were asked to bring in gently used clothing and accessories to be collected and donated to Goodwill.
The schools competed against one another hoping to out-donate Cherokee High School, the reigning Give to Goodwill champion.
However, the Cherokee community was able to clinch first place once again.
LRHSD Superintendent Carol Birnbohm said the district enjoys great support from staff, students, families and community members for food drives, toy drives and other donations.
However, the amount of clothing contributed to Goodwill Drive this season surpassed even the district’s expectations.
“It demonstrates how a little friendly competition between the four high schools, when put towards a great cause, benefits the community. I am very proud of the efforts of our students and staff, particularly the members of our clubs who helped to communicate and organize these clothing drives at each school,” Birnbohm said.
The competition kicked off on Tuesday, Oct. 3 and ended on Friday, Nov. 17, giving students more than a month to donate items.
The items were collected and then weighed. The school with the most pounds per student was named the winner of the contest. This kept the competition fair due to the different populations at each school.
The district also included a bar graph of the current standings on each school website homepage. Participants were able to see who their closest competition was and knew how much more they needed to donate in order to win.
According to the district, this was a record-breaking year overall for the competition, as the LRHSD community donated more than 31,000 pounds more than its previous record set in 2011.
The LRHSD community was able to donate 3,895 bags of clothing.
Cherokee High School was able to secure first place in the competition with a total of 44,643 pounds, which equaled 20.8 pounds of clothing per student.
Seneca High School came in second place with a total of 20,332 pounds overall and 18.04 pounds per student, followed by Shawnee High School with 17,043 pounds overall and 10.9 pounds per student, and Lenape High School with a total of 7,567 pounds overall and 4.07 pounds per student.
According to the district, the district’s seven-year total as a participant in the competition is now 342,321 pounds.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Lenape Regional School District for partnering with us in this friendly clothing drive competition,” said Goodwill president and CEO Mark B. Boyd. “This community service project teaches students the importance of recycling and reusing community resources while helping fund Goodwill’s job training programs that help those faced with barriers to employment to get to work.”
Proceeds from the sale of donated items fund Goodwill’s job training programs and career services that help local residents with disabilities and disadvantages get to work.
