South Lakes Students Raise Over $1,200 For Feed A Child Campaign

By Anna Lopynski

During the week of March 10, 2014, South Lakes High School raised $1,220 for the Feed A Child campaign, a youth initiative by students under 25 years old to raise $20,000 in support of the children of the Child Rescue Centre and patients of Mercy Hospital, both located in Bo, Sierra Leone. 

The campaign, which is taking place through a partnership with the nonprofit organization Helping Children Worldwide, kicked off on February 16, 2014, and will conclude on March 30, 2014. All of the money raised will go directly to feeding, educating, clothing and attending to the medical needs of children in Bo.

To raise its $1,220 for the Feed a Child campaign, the South Lakes High School Key Club created a competition between the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes. The prize? The class that raised the most money would select a representative from that class to have his or her head shaved by Key Club members, thus easily identifying that class as the winners.  

Students were given an opportunity to donate money or buy various Feed A Child merchandise items, such as tee shirts and lanyards, during their lunch periods all week. On Wednesday, March 12, a bake sale was held after school in the main hall which raised close to $200 and helped boost the momentum of the week-long contest.  Other incentives for the fundraiser included a Chipotle gift card raffle and a matching donor for one of the days. 

During lunch on Friday, the last day of the contest, it was announced that the senior class was in the lead. The sophomores staged an uprising and flooded to the donation table. They were determined to have their chosen representative, Nico Chopivsky, be the one to win the grand prize of having his head shaved.  Many sophomores stayed at the table until the end of lunch, quadrupling every donation and ensuring their class would be the winners.

Nico is now bald! Key Club members shaved his head and revealed his new look to the student body at Chipotle during their Feed A Child fundraiser Friday evening. It was a successful week and the biggest winners of all are the children of the Child Rescue Centre as well as the patients at Mercy Hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone.

Additional Feed A Child fundraisers will take place next week. A Dance-A-Thon will be held on Friday, March 28, from 7 p.m. to midnight, and an A Cappella Concert will be held onSaturday, March 29, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Both events will take place at Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon. For more information, go to www.florisumc.org

For more information on the Feed A Child campaign, go to www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org