TOLONO — In just a few weeks, students at Unity High School raised funds to bring Thanksgiving meals to 78 households — that’s nearly 300 people.
This was the last year participating in the fundraiser for seniors Reagan Little, Jocelyn LeFaivre and Tatum Meyer.
All three said that handing off the food to recipients was the best part, even more than scaring people at the haunted-house fundraiser or spending time with their friends.
“It gives you a chance to see everything and being able to reward these people and give them something they need is really impactful,” LeFaivre said.
There’s a system for dropping food off: The students never go alone, and they never go out after dark.
The recipients didn’t know they’d be getting food, so each student came back with a story about surprising someone.
Little gave food to one woman who just couldn’t stop saying “thank you,” while Meyer had sort of the opposite experience: Someone didn’t want the food at all.
“He came out and he was like, ‘We don’t actually need a box. We’ve been given one every year and we’ve just sent it back, so you guys could donate it to someone else,’” Meyer said. “Well, that was a nice way to say no to me.”
LeFaivre was nervous about dropping food off at one home because the resident didn’t want to come to the door and she wanted to respect their privacy, but she ended up being able to give the box to the person’s kids.
“We’re trying to balance making sure that everyone’s happy but also getting what they need,” LeFaivre said.
Fundraising started in October with a haunted house at the high school, which brought in about $1,500 in one day.
Meyer was a “scarer” in the earlier part of the day when the haunted house was geared toward younger kids.
“We just handed out candy,” Meyer said. “The scary part is just the decorations and stuff.”
Later, other volunteers acted a little spookier as the audience shifted to older kids and adults.
A competition for which grade could raise the most money ended with around $850 and earned the winning class a big breakfast.
Students also dropped off cans for cash donations at local businesses, which racked up at least $1,000 — it hasn’t all been counted yet.
All this was supplemented by funds from student council week to cover $4,500 in food from the St. Joseph IGA, which gives the school a deal and covers delivery for such a large order.
The food drive is a longstanding annual tradition, but things have changed a bit since the pandemic: The students used to ask for food donations, rather than cash.
Math teacher and student council sponsor Jennifer Meyer said the new system is a lot better.
“We never knew how much of any item we’d have until we started boxing the food,” Meyer said.
Now, the students have a specific list of food items for each household so that each box will include enough for the people receiving it.
Volunteers got together Friday to pack everything up, then did the deliveries over the weekend.
“I had a lot of fun delivering boxes to people,” Meyer said. “It’s very rewarding.”
“It was nice to see the look on people’s faces, to see how they were affected by us doing this for them,” Little said.