Students Doing Their Part To Help Valley Schools Gathering Food For People, Pets, Plus Blankets And More

Thu., Nov. 30, 2000

By Marny Lombard marnyl@spokesman.com (509) 927-2166

Students across the Spokane Valley are working on charity projects for their fellow man. And in some cases, they’re working for the animals, too.

At Mountain View Middle School, disabled students recently collected several hundred pounds of pet food and $85 for the Spokane County Animal Shelter.

“The animal shelter is the agency we’re going to work with this year,” said teacher Leah Lucero.

Her students plan to do follow-up drives for the shelter, gathering blankets for the dog pens and animal toys.

Also helping with those projects are members of PALs (for Peer Assisted Leadership), a group of mainstream students who assist the special education kids in a variety of ways.

At Bowdish Junior High School, ninth-graders successfully collected a whole school bus full of food before Thanksgiving for the Valley Food Bank.

“It was awesome,” said Bowdish teacher Margie Tibbitts. “The kids were so excited.”

Otis Orchards Elementary School is holding a food and clothing drive from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The goal is to fill an East Valley school bus. Collected food will go to the food bank at the Otis Orchards Seventh-day Adventist Church. Clothing will go to the Valley Community Center clothing bank.

East Valley High School freshman class officers are wrapping up a blanket drive this week. The drive will benefit homeless teenagers in Spokane.

Any size blanket from baby blankets to bed blankets can be dropped off Friday at the main entry of the high school.

The students have collected about 100 blankets, so far; all donations will go to Crosswalk, which serves homeless teens in downtown Spokane.

Other Valley schools are also collecting food, clothing and Christmas gifts for needy families, or helping with the Valley Center’s gift distribution just before Christmas.

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