The California Middle School Peer Helpers group hosted a food drive Oct. 19-23, called "I can, you can, we can: being drug free comes in cans!" Sponsors for the group are Marsha Bibb and Jennifer Porter.
Wednesday, Oct. 21, Bibb made an announcement to the middle school student body that they had only received about 100 cans of food. She encouraged students to remember to bring canned goods the rest of the week.
"We were way behind last years donation of 240," Bibb commented. But little did she know what would happen at the school Thursday.
Brooklyn Bax, eighth grader, and Shaylyn Bax, seventh grader, went home Wednesday evening and was talking to their mom and stepfather about the food drive. They shared concern for the people in the community that did not have enough to eat. Their mom, Joanie Luecke, and stepfather, Landon Worthey, told the girls they would be happy to make a contribution to assist the families for the holidays. So the girls thought they would bring a few bags of groceries to the school the next day. Brooklyn stated, "I never thought they would bring this much, this is a lot of food."
But what happened at 1:30 Thursday, Oct. 22, surprised the sisters as well as the entire school.
Worthey and Luecke arrived at the school with a truck load of canned goods to donate to the food drive on behalf of Worthey Bail Bonds.
Sixth grade students assisted in unloading the food mounting to over 700 cans.
Worthey shared, "We just want to help out and this seemed like the right thing to do."
According to Bibb all the donations will go to the families the Peer Group serves through the Middle School Giving Tree during the holidays. Any extra food will be donated to the local food pantry.