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JS students challenged to fill 500 holiday meal boxes

With goal met, principals camp out on football field

JERSEY SHORE — The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) chapter from Jersey Shore Area Senior High School hosted a district wide food drive during the month of November in conjunction with the Jersey Shore Education Foundation and the New Love Center.

They set a goal to fill 500 holiday meal boxes and collected various holiday foods, such as cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn, green beans, and gravy, which were donated to the New Love Center in Jersey Shore. The FBLA chapter then took the donations and packaged them into holiday meal boxes for families in need.

The New Love Center provides these meals to almost 500 food insecure families every year during the holiday season, so there was a great need for this project in our community. The New Love Center distributes meal boxes twice a month to almost 500 families, and serves families in both Lycoming and Clinton counties. In 2017 alone, they served 11,336 people across 4,676 households.

FBLA President Annalise Eiswerth and Secretary Stephanie Steinbacher helped plan and organize the event along with every member of the organization.

They came up with the idea back in April when Steinbacher and FBLA advisor Dolly Oden were discussing what kind of area project the group could do.

“We definitely want to focus on our community,” Eiswerth said.

Members of FBLA asked students, parents, faculty, and staff to donate specific items to contribute to the boxes, and they asked for donations from local businesses and individuals for chickens to include in each box.

Salladasburg Elementary and Avis Elementary worked to collect 500 boxes of stuffing; Jersey Shore Elementary had a goal of 1,000 cans of green beans; Jersey Shore Middle School were to bring in 1,000 cans of gravy; Jersey Shore Senior High School was in charge of 1,000 cans of corn, and finally, the faculty and staff for all of the schools were responsible for 500 containers of cranberry sauce, and could also donate money for chickens.

On Dec. 4, all food from the various schools was picked up and taken to the First United Methodist Church in Jersey Shore. Transportation for this event was very generously provided by Marden’s Transportation. On Dec. 5, the FBLA members returned to the First United Methodist Church to fill the 500 holiday boxes which will be distributed on Dec. 21.

JS FBLA wanted to spur community engagement through their social media campaign, as well as through posters for businesses who supported the food drive.

Several posts and updates about the food drive’s progress were made on the chapter’s social media sites, and on the district Facebook page, to show others in the community what the project was and the goals they were working towards.

The hashtag #weSHOREcare was used on all posts to connect them, and that way other individuals on the social media sites could also use the hashtag to help promote the food drive.

In order to show the development of the food drive, members of the FBLA chapter, along with other faculty members, created bulletin boards with evidence of the progress.

These included a corncob with kernels on it at the high school, a “gravy train” at the middle school, and buses stuffed with pictures of stuffing in the windows at Avis and Salladasburg Elementary. This enabled the students and faculty to stay engaged and motivated in the project.

Upon finishing the food drive, all of the schools met and exceeded their goals.

Avis Elementary collected 934 boxes of stuffing; Salladasburg Elementary collected 716 boxes of stuffing; Jersey Shore Elementary brought 1,392 cans of green beans; Jersey Shore Middle School totaled 1,387 cans of gravy; Jersey Shore Senior High collected 2,189 cans of corn; and the faculty and staff brought in 690 cans of cranberry sauce.

In addition to the food collections, a total of over $11,000 to date was collected and will be donated to the New Love Center to assist with the purchase of the chickens and other expenses.

Approximately $500 of this will be donated to students who qualify for free and reduced lunch in order to assist them with the costs of their Advanced Placement (AP) tests.

All of the extra food items were given to the New Love Center for distribution through their cafe, backpack program, and Easter meal boxes.

Throughout the district, the faculty, staff, and FBLA officers worked to come up with various incentives for the students if the goals were met. All schools agreed to have an ice cream party for the class at each building that brought in the most items. Additionally, each school has their own individual incentive for their building if they met their goal.

Salladasburg Elementary will be having a movie and popcorn day, as will Avis Elementary and Jersey Shore Middle School. Jersey Shore Elementary will be having an all-school dance party where the students will be choosing outfits and accessories for their principals to wear during the dance. Jersey Shore Senior High has decided to have a special assembly where for two hours at the end of the day, students who brought in corn will be able to participate in an activity of their choice. These include volleyball in the gym, movies in various rooms and the auditorium, and Christmas karaoke in the chorus room.

The high school also decided to assign one of their FBLA advisers, Mr. Miller, to the student and staff member who brought in the most cans of corn for a day to be their personal assistant.

For the individual who brought in the most boxes of stuffing at Salladasburg Elementary, Avis Elementary, and Jersey Shore Middle School, they received a gift card of their choice.

Since all goals were met throughout the district, all principals and vice principals in the district agreed to camp out on the football field on Friday, Dec. 14 from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.

From 8 to 9 p.m., the community was invited to enjoy s’mores, cooked by FBLA members, and enjoy some warm apple cider as well.

“What they’ve achieved is really beyond words,” Jersey Shore High School Assistant Principal Elizabeth Segraves said.

Throughout the food drive, members of the schools, along with the community, were extremely supportive of the project and the FBLA chapter’s endeavors.

“I am so proud of the students and the community,” high school principal Steven Keen said. “It ties into our compassion theme at the high school.”

This school year, the Jersey Shore Senior High School has been following the theme of “Compassion Counts.” It is evident that showing compassion towards one another brings out the best in people, so the schools have been encouraging not only their students, but also all faculty and staff to show compassion towards others, even if it is just the smallest gesture.

“We’re really thankful to FBLA for bringing everyone (kindergarten through twelfth grade) together and the community together,” Jersey Shore Elementary Principal Adrienne Johnston said.

Both Johnston and the elementary school’s assistant principal, Jennifer Berry-Propst said their kindergarten and first grade students were concerned about their one night stay on the district’s football field.

All of the district’s principals were very proud of their students, which made braving the chilly night air a little easier.

The #weSHOREcare project embodies the idea of compassion within the district right now, and the amount of kindness that was shown by the community during this entire project.

This project was made possible by the community and Jersey Shore Area School District coming together and showing compassion and support for those in need.

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