Representatives from Southeast High School and volunteers from McConnell Air Force Base deliver turkeys to the Morris Administrative Center. Southeast collected 472 turkeys for United Methodist Open Door.
District more than doubles collection for Turkey Drive
Thank you for all who helped support the United Methodist Open Door Turkey Drive, sponsored by B98-FM, on November 20. Wichita Public School’s Alvin E. Morris Administrative Center served as the drop off location for the schools, district offices and for downtown Wichita. This year, 2,595 turkeys were collected, along with $12,500 in monetary donations and hundreds of canned goods. This year’s collection more than doubled the amount of turkeys collected last year at AMAC.

“United Methodist Open Door told us that our schools have collected more turkeys this year than what the entire city collected last year,” said Superintendent John Allison, who worked the collection site. “We are very proud of the students and staff for coming together to support the community.”

Schools from every grade level and employees from support centers dropped off items for the drive. Many schools had competitions to see who could collect the most turkeys and donations. There was also a competition between all the elementary, middle and high schools. Elementary schools collected 304 turkeys, middle schools collected 515 turkeys and high schools collected 1,690 turkeys. The rest of the donations came from district’s four support centers. Twenty-three were donated from the community.

Southeast High School collected the most turkeys, bringing in a total of 472 turkeys and $565. Southeast had McConnell personnel volunteers help bring their donation to AMAC in a military truck.  

“Our students really stepped up,” said Leroy Parks, principal at Southeast. “They started working on the campaign weeks ago. I’m very proud of their dedication to helping others in Wichita, and many that will be helped are our own students here in Wichita.” 

Leadership Cadets from Pleasant Valley and Marshall Middle Schools, North High School students, as well as AmeriCorp volunteers and staff from the administrative center braved the cold temperatures to work at the drop off site to collect the turkeys.

This was the fourth year that the Wichita Public Schools participated in the annual Turkey Drive.

 


November 20, 2009