Hoffman Estates High School collects food for pantries
For 10 days, students at Hoffman Estates High School joined together for a common cause — making sure local families have food to eat during the holiday season.
Students donated more than 13,000 food items to benefit the Schaumburg Food Pantry, Blessings in a Backpack, and the Hoffman Estates High School Food Pantry.
The food items were displayed to the school during a pep assembly on Nov. 28, where the total number of donated items was unveiled.
“This was to raise excitement in the school and express what the bigger meaning of donating is,” said Tony Ganas, dean of students, special education teacher, and wrestling coach at Hoffman Estates High School. “Students used social media and Twitter to promote this, and different activities were set up to make people aware that they could participate. We wanted to have one, united goal and accomplish something big.”
The initial goal was to collect 10,000 food items. Students, teachers, and student organizations worked hard. Among groups that came together to support the cause were: forensic team, student council, fine arts department, football team, English department, art department, teachers and the teacher’s union, dance, auto club, yoga for a cause, crutch crew and the maintenance team.
Students used the hashtags #hehsgrateful and #hehsonecan to promote their efforts on Twitter.
“One person can do something great, and it was cool to see how our students were using social networking in a positive way,” Ganas said. “I am a big advocate of community service. It’s humbling for our students. We want to make sure our students connect with the community in Hoffman Estates, the state of Illinois, and hopefully bigger from there. It’s important for them to start the snowball effect now.”
During the pep assembly, several teachers showcased their gratitude by performing a flash mob dance. A video that was filmed and edited by Hoffman Estates High School students that documents the food drive is among school news posted at d211post.org.