When the DeSoto High School Student Council organized this year’s canned food drive in November, they knew they were fulfilling a need in the community but did not realize that they were also creating a pathway to togetherness for some campus students.
Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher Julie Armstrong, who also supports the DeSoto High School Student Council Committee, asked students in each of her classes to participate in the student council food donation drive to help families in need during the holiday season.
After sharing the project information with her students, Armstrong estimated she’d see a couple of hundred cans at maximum. What she soon observed was a spirit of competition brewing among her classes who became deeply invested in the project.
“At first, it was supposed to be a competition between two teachers' classes in the DHS US History Department and it became a competition between my class periods. Each period wanted to have more cans than another,” said Ms. Armstrong. “The students started racing to see which classes would have the most canned goods at the end of the donation drive.
Armstrong was overwhelmingly excited because she saw the development of something intrinsic that will last long after all the food items have been distributed.
“This built positive growth and relationships. They have put me to tears, I asked, and they delivered,” she said. “My students were excited to come to class each day to see what the count was and where their period was compared to other periods. They went above and beyond expectations to help those in need.”
By the close of the donation drive Armstrong classes which - total about 180 students when counting students in all of her classes- helped the Desoto High School Student Council collect 1,271 canned and non-perishable goods.