It’s school vs. school, friend vs. friend, class vs. class, as the schools of the Lenape High School Regional School District will battle it out and try to collect the most items for Goodwill International of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia.
Lenape Regional High School District Foundation of Leadership students and faculty advisers from each high school organized the community-service project benefiting Goodwill. Proceeds from the sale of everything collected fund Goodwill’s job training programs and career services that help local residents with disabilities and disadvantages get to work.
The competition will pit each high school against each other during the collection period which began on Monday, March 5 and ends Thursday, April 19.
“The Lenape Regional High School District is excited for the partnership with Goodwill Industries and the community service opportunity for our students,” said LRHSD Superintendent of Schools Emily Capella. “Our students are committed to service learning and their contribution to the community is commendable.”
It’s going to be a pressure filled two months as students, parents and faculty at Cherokee, Lenape, Seneca and Shawnee high schools begin cleaning out their closets, basements and garages to find gently-used unwanted items for Goodwill.
Len Westman, north Principal at Lenape High School, said it is important to help others in need.
“It’s just another initiative that the district promotes giving back to the community,” Westman said. “It gets the kids to think about more than themselves (and) promotes a sense of community.”
He said the students who participate are well-rounded and are civic-minded.
“It makes better citizens,” Westman said.
Shawnee High School Principal Matthew Campbell thinks the drive and competition is a great idea.
“There are no losers,” Campbell said, noting the satisfaction realized by those who think of others and try to better the world they live in.
He said the students will hopefully become people who do community service all of their lives.
“I appreciate their willingness to partner with the schools for a good cause,” Campbell said of Goodwill.
Tony Cattani, south principal at Lenape High School, believes civic engagement is important.
“We’re always encouraging our students to help serve one another,” Cattani said.
He also believes partnering with Goodwill is a good idea.
“I think it’s a healthy rivalry,” Cattani said. “I think it will bring out the best in our students and our staff for a good cause.
“My hopes are that the students will acknowledge that there are other people who need help.”
Seneca High School Principal Jeff Spector said the drive is “tremendous” and that he’s proud to see students embrace civic responsibility.
“I just think it’s great to see the kids involved in such an opportunity,” Spector said.
Assistant Principal of Cherokee High School Scott Agnew said whenever the district has an inter-high school competition, it really gets the competitive juices flowing in the students.
“Whenever there’s competition amongst the Indian schools, everyone is out to get number one. We’re very competitive within our district,” he said. “For the most part, our kids are very fortunate in Evesham to have the opportunities that they do. This is just one of many charitable things we do in the high school. So many of our clubs and teams do things to help out the needy. We have numerous food and clothing drives throughout the year. It’s great.”
Goodwill will be bringing donation containers to each school’s parking lot during spring-cleaning season. Once full, a Goodwill truck will empty the container, count the number of bags in it, and then compute the number of pounds of donations collected.
Cherokee High School’s donation box will be right at the entrance of Cherokee North, Agnew said, to remain in the forefront of student and parents minds.
“We want our students to have the awareness that not everyone is as well off as most of us are. The ability to reach out and help the people who need help, our kids have been unbelievable in doing that,” he said. “To make it competitive, that’s a little bit more fuel for our kids. The student council is heading this, but the entire school is going to be involved.”
Donation results for each school will be periodically posted on the district’s website at www.lrhsd.edu and on Goodwill’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/GoodwillNJ.
The school that collects the most donations (based on pounds) will be crowned the 2012 Champions and receive a trophy that can be displayed at their school until 2013, when the new clothing drive challenge begins.
According to Goodwill’s President and CEO Mark B. Boyd, leadership students have spent many months preparing for this competition and learning about Goodwill. In January, a group of 40 students toured Goodwill’s retail operations center, where donations are sorted, recycled and prepared for sale. A visit to Goodwill’s outsourcing and production fulfillment center, which provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities, showed them Goodwill’s mission in action.
The Lenape Regional High School District serves the eight municipalities of Evesham, Medford, Mt. Laurel, Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle and Woodland townships and Medford Lakes Borough.
