The Lenape Regional High School District recently finished its ninth year of participating in the Give to Goodwill Competition.
Students, teachers, staff and family members at each school were asked to bring in gently-used clothing and accessories to be collected and donated to Goodwill. The schools competed against each other hoping to out-donate the reigning Give to Goodwill champion, Seneca High School. This year Cherokee was able to clinch first place.
“The amount of clothing contributed to our Goodwill Drive this season, surpassed our expectations. I am very proud of the efforts of our students and staff, particularly the members of our clubs who helped to communicate and organize these clothing drives at each school,” said LRHSD Superintendent, Carol Birnbohm, Ed.D.
The competition kicked off on Oct. 3 and ended on Nov. 15, giving students well over a month to donate all of the items they possibly could. The items were collected and then weighed. The school with the most pounds per student was named the winner of the contest. This kept the competition fair due to the different populations at each school.
To keep things interesting, the district included a bar graph of the current standings on each school website homepage. Participants were able to see who their closest competition was and knew how much more they needed to donate in order to win.
This was a record-breaking year overall for the competition as the LRHSD community donated over 8,193 lbs. more than our previous record set in 2017. The LRHSD collected a total of 97,778 lbs. in donations to give to Goodwill. The LRHSD community was able to donate an impressive 4,251 bags of clothing.
Cherokee High School was able to secure first place in the competition with a total of 49,749 lbs., which equaled 23.07 lbs. of clothing per student. Seneca High School came in second place with a total of 21,229 lbs. overall and 19.60 lbs. per student, followed by Shawnee with 14,559 lbs. overall and 9.32 lbs. per student, and then Lenape with a total of 12,241 lbs. overall and 6.36 lbs. per student. The LRHSD’s nine-year total as a participant in the competition is now 516,303 lbs.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Lenape Regional School District for partnering with us in this friendly clothing drive competition,” said Goodwill President and CEO Mark B. Boyd. “This community service project teaches students the importance of recycling and reusing community resources while helping fund Goodwill’s job training programs that help those faced with barriers to employment to get to work.” Proceeds from the sale of donated items fund Goodwill’s job training programs and career services that help local residents with disabilities and disadvantages get to work.
