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Coweta County Schools responded to shortages at the Coweta Food
Pantry by raising more than ever before for the annual Coweta
County Can-A-Thon.
Coweta County students and teachers raised an estimated 266,850
cans, boxes and bags of food, or cash equivalents to the annual
food drive. It was a record for the school system and, combined
with generous contributions from elsewhere in the community, the
schools’ contributions helped replenish the Pantry’s shelves.
All Coweta County schools held drives and donated to help the
Newnan Junior Service League restock the Coweta County food
pantry. School system operations employees spent Monday and
Tuesday after Thanksgiving loading the crates and bags of food
piled in school cafeterias and media centers.
Newnan High School prevailed this year in the annual, friendly
competition among the schools to raise the most for the food
drive.
Newnan High students – led by the school’s SGA - gathered up
37,000 items. East Coweta raised 24,510 items and Northgate
raised 13,451. Northgate’s Air Force JROTC led this year’s
effort among the high schools by raising over 2,600 items in an
early drive before Thanksgiving.
Lee Middle School was last year’s top school during the annual
food drive in 2008, and very nearly topped the drive this year.
The middle school raised 34,011 items this year, followed
closely by Smokey Road Middle school’s 33,001 items.
Lee Middle School’s Heaberlin said that Coweta’s schools have
engaged “in a friendly competition to outdo each other” during
the annual Can-A-Thon for years. That competition has grown as
the county has grown – and as the competition between middle and
high schools has grown more intense.
In 1993, when Heaberlin was an assistant principal at Newnan
High School, “Arnall Middle School beat us out by raising 5,100
cans, and Newnan High had raised 5,000. And we were the top
schools! Now our students are competing with tens of thousands
of items, so the schools have really stepped up.”
“Its fun, and our students and teachers really get behind it,”
said Heaberlin. “I know there are kids here who rake leaves or
do chores and donate the money to the Food Pantry. Our teachers
get into it and have competitions between grades and classes and
teams. It’s a great competition, and our community wins. This is
probably the number one thing our schools do in terms of giving
back to the community.”
Several other schools have seen a strong spirit of giving as
Thanksgiving approaches, particularly considering the Coweta
Food Pantry has reported shortages during the difficult economic
times.
Smokey Road’s 33,001 cans raised was the highest total donated
in the school’s history, with the effort led by SGA students and
SGA sponsors Matt Hauert, Karla Wilson, and Janice Chestnut. The
school’s 8th grade raised the most and donated 3,413 cans, with
1,852 of those cans coming from teacher Shawn Atkinson’s
homeroom. The 7th grade raised 1,195 cans, with teacher Wanda
Pettaway’s homeroom raising the most cans, and the 6th grade
raised 892 cans, with teacher Clay Hildebrand’s homeroom raising
the most cans.
At East Coweta Middle, 12-year-old student Cody Phillips took it
upon himself to go around his Senoia neighborhood every night
and collect cans from his neighbors. He brought in over 150 cans
by himself. He told me that he felt fortunate and that this was
something he could do on his own to help others. Another student
- Morgan Goree – donated brought in over $60 from her recent
birthday that she was saving to buy something for herself, and
encouraged other students to do the same.
Jefferson Parkway Elementary brought in the highest number of
cans for the smaller elementary schools – 10,964, only barely
out-raising Canongate Elementary’s 10,060 cans.
“We made it a competition between the classrooms and grade
levels. We also had three administrative teams competing against
one another. The students and teachers just kept giving and
giving,” said Jefferson Parkway Principal Sean Dye.
At Poplar Road Elementary, teachers held a “pre-can-a-thon” in
late October to get the drive started, and staff teams competed
and raised nearly 1,500 food items (the winners received Jeans
Passes”). That load was taken to the Food Pantry early. Since
then, students at the Poplar Road have brought in an additional
2,500 food items or cash equivalents (classes also competed, and
winners get to attend a “Generosity Jam” celebration dance with
the principal Lesley Goodwin and assistant principals.
Newnan Crossing promised an ice cream party to the two classes
in the school which collected the most cans. The school’s PTO
made a display on the wall using trains to symbolize each
classroom and the trains were moved to show how many cans each
class collected, so students had a running tally. Newnan
Crossing’s student council and PTO parents assisted in gathering
the cans from the classrooms and boxing the items.
At Arbor Springs Elementary School, teachers adopted a
“Can-struction” theme to encourage giving. Each class adopted a
name, like “Fogle’s Forklifts”, “Travis’s Tractors”,
“Donaldson’s Drywallers”, “Normans’ Nailers”, “Brinkleys’
Bulldozers” and “Shaw’s Saws.” The school put up a huge bulletin
board in the front hall using construction cones standing for
every 10 cans collected by each class.
“And the kids are really interested, really excited, and really
bringing in the food,” said Arbor Springs Principal Patti Falk.
“We have only 460 kids this year due to the re-districting, and
we’ve already exceeded last year’s total when we had almost 700!
They’ve done great!”
Atkinson Elementary School Principal Melissa Wimbish said that
her school received two anonymous donations – of $100 and $1,
000 – during their drive, and one second grade boy donated $100
of his birthday money. “He wanted hungry people to have food
before he bought presents for himself,” she said. |
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