Building leaders through acts of service at Mountainside Elementary
Students at Mountainside Elementary found a way to make the holidays even brighter — by giving back to their community through service. Mountainside’s Leadership Club coordinated a food drive for their school that ended on Thursday, Dec. 19, with incredible results! Over 2,600 food items were collected and donated to the Cache Community Food Pantry.
Leadership students coordinated the food drive and worked with their classmates and teachers to gather food to be donated to the local food bank. In the months leading up to the drive, the students got together every other week to plan. Students made posters, gathered boxes, and came up with an incentive program for donations, especially those of gluten-free items. When asked what her favorite part of the food drive was, one of the leadership students, Brenna, replied, “Working together.”
Another student, Macie, was proud of the effort that she and other students contributed. “We put lots of work into [the food drive] to help kids that need food, that are not getting enough to eat.” Her friend, Sarah, felt compassion for those who would receive the food. “I feel so bad for the people who are hungry and don’t have food. This way, people can get food and won’t starve.” She smiled as she continued, “The food drive made me feel good.”
Mountainside Principal Lynette Riggs loves the lessons that she has seen students learn from participating in this food drive as students applied concepts from Stephen Covey’s seven habits for leadership success. “It teaches these leaders in our school that leadership is about service,” Riggs said. “Their collaboration was wonderful, but the big thing, of course, is the end result. The goal that they had in mind is that there will be a lot of families benefitting from their selfless efforts.”
The students’ desire to help others spread beyond the school. An anonymous donor who heard of the project came with their own truckload of food and donation of money to build upon the students’ efforts. Riggs added, “It was neat to see our efforts spread and inspire good work from others as well. It was a great outcome!”