Students ‘Walking With a Mission’
To Help Area Food Shelf
By Anneke Van Fossen

Throughout last week, South Royalton School students participated in a collaborative effort to collect donations for the local food shelf, serving the South Royalton, Chelsea, Tunbridge, Barnard, Bethel, and Randolph communities.

In their Physical Education classes, taught by Jim Hewitt and Jeff Thomas, students from all grade levels were challenged to walk or run for an entire class period, wearing pedometers to keep track of their steps. Beforehand, the students solicited pledges per 500 steps taken. These contributions were to be monetary or in the form of a non-perishable food item.

There were over 300,000 steps taken in all. The elementary P.E. classes collected over 1,000 pounds of food. Along with the food collected by Claire Epchook, Alicia Hanford, and the rest of the middle school, the upper level P.E. classes brought in 420 pounds of food to be donated. Together, the students raised $1,145, and for every 20 cents donated to the food shelf, one pound of food can be purchased.

The elementary P.E. classes were given extra motivation to help them find sponsors for this effort. They were told that the class that brought in the most food would be given an ice cream party. With 220 pounds of food, Mrs. Kurash’s fourth graders won this special treat.

Hewitt and Thomas wanted to make sure that all of the students who participated felt as though they’d contributed to the undertaking. Instead of simply asking people to donate money to the cause, the students had to set personal goals and strive to meet them. Through this activity, the students witnessed the tangible results of their hard work.

____________