Sara Stadem | Editor
The Tri-Valley students decided to challenge each other to help those in need by collecting food items for “Feeding South Dakota.”
According to Tri-Valley JK-8 Counselor Whitney Burroughs, “Feeding South Dakota” is an organization in South Dakota that helps to provide food for state communities. “They are the organization that sponsors and provides all of the snack bags for the Backpack Programs and because we have families who are a part of that program and we receive food from them each week, this was a great organization to donate our collected food to,” Burroughs stated.
The food drive was sponsored by the K-12 Student Councils, according to Tri-Valley High School Student Council Advisor Amber Fluth. “At the high school we did a March Madness and pitted advisories against each other in a single elimination tournament,” Fluth explained. She continued, “But the other way to win was to be the advisory who donated the most overall. Advisories who win will get a pizza party.”
The middle school also had a competition to entice students to bring food items according to Middle School Student Council Advisor Kayla Preheim. “Our student council members felt that a fun prize would be a lunch outside on a nice day with their homeroom. With the weather warming up, they’ve all wanted to be outside during the day more, and my student council members were very excited about this,” Preheim stated.
Preheim shared she thought it was a good turnout for participation and helped with “Kindness Week” which was also taking place at the middle school and elementary school.
Kindness Week focused on doing good deeds and being kind to others, according to Preheim. “I think there were students who were very excited about the idea of helping others, and the Kindness Week helped to show them this as well,” she stated.
Burroughs explained Kindness Week was filled with ways for students to learn, explore and practice kindness. Kindness Week included “Kindness BINGO” where students were challenged to make a “BINGO” made up of various acts of kindness, spirit days based on the theme of kindness and more.
To promote the food drive and Kindness Week, Burroughs explained the junior high student council made morning announcements each day that included a message of kindness for the day and encouraged students to bring in canned food items.
The elementary school stayed in true fashion with the rest of the school district and also challenged each other with a friendly competition to see which classroom could deliver the most food items.
The results provided the friendly competitions worked.
According to Burroughs, between the elementary and middle schools, there were around 2,500 items donated. The high school collection was done by weight and they brought in approximately 6,000 pounds of food which was a combination of food items and money that was donated.
At the elementary school, first place went to Mrs. Cyndi Bergh’s (5th grade) class who donated 320 items. Mr. Derik Fossum’s (6th grade) class was right on her tail in second place with 314 items and third place went to Ms. Kynedi Cheeseman’s (5th grade) class with 166 items. These classes all received ice cream as a special classroom treat as a thank you for their generosity.
Mr. Fossum said, “Admittedly, our class got some help from a family member of a student in the class, but I think an adult taking such interest and setting an example of giving is a good thing. It sure got the kids excited and it encouraged them to bring quite a bit of food on the last day.”
Students in Mr. Fossum’s class shared how it felt to help others in need.
“It feels good to help people in need of food.”
“It is a good thing there are people looking out for those who don’t have what they need.”
“It feels like our school did some good in the world.”
When asked about “Feeding South Dakota,” Sophomore Rachel Boer said, “During the pandemic, you don’t see a lot of people giving to those in need because everybody is focused on their own needs. This has been a really good community builder and it makes me feel good to know that I helped someone else.”
High School Student Council President Austyn Burggraff added, “Feeding South Dakota is a great cause and I’m so grateful Tri-Valley has the chance to contribute to those less fortunate.”
As for the recap of the week, Burroughs said, “Students love the dress up days and having a theme of “kindness” really helped them carry that message and their actions throughout the entire week. We want to help model kindness for our students and this was a great opportunity for students to put such a focus on doing kind acts throughout the week.” Burroughs continued, “The hope is that with them taking part in doing kind acts, they will see how it can help them and others to feel happy and that they will work to make “kindness contagious” moving forward.”