Three area high school students recently got smothered in Cool Whip as a reward for helping needy families.
The Campbell, Minn., school’s annual tradition, run by the National Honor Society, starts by having students collect coins for two weeks. Afterward, they “throw” 26 Cool-Whip laden “pies” in the faces of the three biggest money-makers. The top earner gets the glory of an actual chocolate pie with a graham cracker crust.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Bruce Fingerson, NHS coordinator. “They don’t actually throw them. They basically walk up and rub it in their face.” After raising $839 this year, the school had some excess funding that will be sent to to Haiti, where a former special education teacher and his family live to do mission work.
“That way, we can send the funds to a person we know and make sure they’re used in a way to benefit people who actually need help,” said Fingerson. “There’s so many needs in Haiti.”
Coins for Christmas is one way NHS students mix fun with volunteer work. Leah Hensch, 17, said she likes to imagine the look on a family’s face as they open up the gifts.
“They probably wouldn’t ever get to have these things if it weren’t for us,” she said. “It’s something where I wish I could be a fly on the wall, watching them open their presents. Just thinking about it makes me happy.”
NHS’ spring carnation sale is used to fund medicine in Africa, buy supplies for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one year helped a Campbell family who lost their home to a fire. It also holds three blood drives per year to satisfy area need. As donating blood can be a lifelong, which is also a tenet of Campbell’s NHS – do something that influences not only the school, but the community and people’s lives, too.
MacKenzie Kutzer, 17, said they always intend on keeping efforts local because they feel more satisfaction giving to people they know.
“(With) a big corporation, you don’t know where your money ends up,” said Kutzer. “I like to see where it goes, and we like to see the impact it has on people closer to the area.”
Like many students, Kutzer and Hensch are involved in band, choir, sports and other activities. Although NHS can be time consuming, they feel it’s worth it.
“With everything else that I’m involved in, sometimes it gets frustrating,” said Hensch. “But once it’s all over and done with, and we’ve succeeded, it feels really good.”
Fingerson, who’s coordinated the group for five years so far, said he believes in the philosophy behind it. The school’s NHS program was established about 10 years ago.
“My parents taught me to give to others and it’s my way of giving to the community and people around here,” he said. “I do it because I enjoy the opportunity to set an example for the kids, and see the kids set an example for the school and make the world a better place, we hope.”