The holidays are a time of giving—and a time of giving back. A number of school clubs collected donations of winter coats, books and canned foods to embody the spirit of the holidays and support the community during the most wonderful time of the year.
The school’s Girl Up Club held a winter clothing drive, collecting donations of items like hats, scarves, and coats from December 12 to January 6.
The club started the winter clothing drive a few years ago and has kept it going annually. The Girl Up mission is to help girls around the country have opportunities to create change, but the club also believes it should help girls and women in their community. Club members work to hold multiple drives and fundraisers every year.
Club advisor and math teacher Emily Duncan is grateful that club members are motivated to take initiative within their community.
“I am positive that each member will better their community, and I could not be happier,” Duncan said.
The proceeds from the first week of collection were donated to the WRAL Coats for the Children program, which provides winter clothing to families in the Triangle area. The second week of donations benefitted the Note in the Pocket organization, a Raleigh-based nonprofit group whose mission is to ensure that schoolchildren have appropriate clothes for school. By donating to both organizations, the club hopes to help as many families as possible.
Junior Girl Up club leader Sophie Lawrence said the first week of the drive was a huge success, and the club received enough items to fill two bins of clothing.
“This year we chose to do a winter clothing drive because we know that there are always people in the community who are in need of clothing for the winter,” Lawrence said. “It is always beneficial to donate clothing instead of throwing it away, and we know that there are many students and families who have clothes they would like to donate.”
Three drives held by the school’s Student Government, Book Club and Key Club concluded before the start of winter break.
Student Government held a holiday food drive from November 28 to December 9. Students donated food items such as canned vegetables, apple sauce, rice and other staple goods to their fourth-period classes. Over 1,100 items were donated.
The food drive was in collaboration with local nonprofit PORCH, a small hunger relief organization that distributes food donations to many families, pantries and schools every year.
“PORCH is an amazing organization to work with and is a really great way to support the community,” senior Emily Kilgallen, president of Chapel Hill High School Student Government, said.
The food drive was set up as a competition, with Dylan Wood’s fourth-period AP Psychology class brining in the most items. Senior Aaron Aviles-Segura is one of the students in Wood’s class.
“Mr. Wood repeated to us that the food drive was for a good cause,” Aviles-Segura said. “At first, he was kind of skeptical that classes would bring in anything, but then one student brought in four bags of food, which he showed to us. He then encouraged us to try to win the pizza party, saying we would have a class period to relax, but, because it was something that was good to do, we became intrinsically motivated. We filled up two tables of food.”
The Book Club held a book drive from November 30 to December 16 for new and used books from any genre. Over 150 donated books were collected.
The club reads and discusses books, and club members wanted to take initiative to help the community as well. Student leaders say the drive was very successful, and they are grateful to anyone who donated.
“Last year, we just thought it would be great if we could share our love of reading with kids who might not have access to books and thought the holidays would be a perfect time to hold the drive,” senior and club member Julia Sumpter said.
The books were donated to Book Harvest, a Durham-based nonprofit organization that promotes literacy by donating books to children and families in need.
The school’s Key Club also partnered with the Chapel Hill Service League’s Christmas House for a Toy Drive to collect toys for children in need. The club placed a donation box in the main office, for students and faculty to donate unopened toys for younger children.
