11/22/2009 6:00:00 AM
Middle school smashes food bank collection record
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JC AMBERLYN/Miner
Students in Katie Niemi's third-hour Student Council class sort non-perishable food items collected from Kingman Middle School classrooms Friday morning.
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KINGMAN - Kingman Middle School wrapped up its annual Thanksgiving food drive for the Kingman Area Food Bank Friday, with students donating more in the past three weeks than in the past six years combined.
The students in Katie Niemi's third-period Student Council class scrambled to make their final collections from around the school's 27 contributing classrooms, then began sorting canned goods and ramen packages into boxes arranged by type for pickup by the food bank Monday.
"This is the last day, and we've got a big competition going on," Niemi said as students dragged carts piled with canned goods into the classroom. "The first Monday, the food bank collected 1,300 (food items), then this last Monday it was about 2,000. Then they'll come next Monday, and I don't know the exact number yet, but we've got over 5,000 now. One teacher's collected 2,700 cans alone."
That teacher was the man responsible for this year's massive turnout, 8th grade science instructor Russ Skubal, whose class collected an additional 1,350 food items Friday, for a total of 3,515. According to Student Council President Toria Williams, Skubal had employed an interesting way of inspiring his fellow teachers to get their classes fired up this year.
"He talks smack about the other teachers, and that gets people competitive and wanting to beat him," she said.
"Last year our effort was really poor, and I thought this year I'd instigate some trouble," Skubal explained. "We've been having a little competitive e-mail battle."
It all started when Skubal asked his fellow teachers whether this year's most successful class could celebrate with something besides the traditional pizza party. "My kids are getting tired of pizza since we always win," Skubal said.
That's all it took for several teachers, particularly Physical Education teacher Todd Winebarger, to do everything they could to out-donate Skubal's class. And by any metric, the plan has been a huge success.
"Last year, the whole school brought in 400 cans," Skubal said. "This year, I thought we'd do a couple thousand. Instead, we've got individual classes that have brought that much in."
In fact, Skubal said he knows of at least one family that brought in more than 2,000 non-perishables themselves, just to make sure Winebarger's class won over his. "He wins all the competitions, and we're just tired of him doing all the gloating," Winebarger said as he tallied his class's collections. "It's gonna be close. We had a huge donation come through the back door this morning."
But whether he won or lost, Skubal said the important thing was that students were being inspired to help their fellow man. "My goal this year was to get enough teachers to want to beat me," he said. "I'm telling my kids, you realize if you're bringing in these cans, there are actually some kids in your class this will be feeding."
By mid-afternoon the final tally was added up. In total, the KMS students had collected a whopping 10,980 cans or packages of food - more than 27 times what they collected the year before. And for the first time, Mr. Skubal was dethroned as the collection king, with Winebarger's class beating his by 165 cans.
But Skubal, his mission accomplished, took the loss in stride. "I look at it this way: we won no matter what," he said.
And they weren't the only winners. Upon learning of the final tally, Food Bank Executive Director Betty Kahlor exclaimed, "Oh my god, that is awesome! That is wonderful!"
Kahlor said the food bank expects to give out more than 1.5 million pounds of food this year, which is 500,000 pounds more than it gave out in 2008. In October alone, she said, the food bank had nearly a thousand food recipients, which represents a 56 percent increase over last year's numbers.
Kahlor said the only way the food bank has been able to keep its warehouse stocked despite the hard economic times has been thanks to the collection efforts of folks like the students at KMS.
"The people of Kingman have been wonderful with the donations, the businesses and the individuals, and we're still holding on," she said. "We appreciate anything and everything we can get, and we always need more."
The Kingman Area Food Bank is located at 2930 E. Butler Ave., and is open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. For more information, or to schedule a food pick up, call (928) 757-4165.
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Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
KMS Mom
I have a child that attends KMS, and my hat goes off to the teachers at this school who not only motivated the kids to want to donate but allowed them to take pride in the donations they are providing to our community who is in need. Thank you for bring out the teamwork and school spirit KMS.
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
high school student
at least we have students who really care. we have kids who cares about others.
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
D. Proferes
Way to go KMS! This is an amazing accomplishment. You should all be very proud of yourselves.
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