Clark County schools collect 4,000 cans for Center for Lay Ministries

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November 19, 2008

Lessons in giving

By TARA HETTINGER The News and Tribune Wed Nov 19, 2008, 01:23 PM EST

With the season of giving quickly approaching, students at Spring Hill Elementary School in Jeffersonville got a lesson on the subject a little early.

The school was one of five in Greater Clark County Schools that collected canned food for the Center for Lay Ministries.

“I learned that the people in need need stuff from the people who have stuff and can give stuff,” Tre’von Burr, 9, said. “And that everybody in the world can make a difference.”

“I learned that kids can help the world,” 10-year-old Karen Gómez said.

That difference — with all five schools — added up to about 4,000 cans of food.

The idea to do the food drive started with Jackie Love, director of multicultural affairs for Greater Clark. She was at a meeting across the street from the Center for Lay Ministries when she was told about the group having problems with empty shelves.

So, she put up a flier at all the schools, encouraging them all to collect by saying: “Yes we can!” She said many schools already were collecting cans for other groups, so five responded — Northaven, Thomas Jefferson, Utica and Spring Hill elementaries and Jeffersonville High School — wanting to help this cause. The student councils at the schools headed each building’s collection, which lasted for about a month.

On Tuesday, Mark Porter, executive director of the center, came to pick up the last of the cans at Spring Hill.

“It’s been a very touching experience to see the level of giving that these children have provided,” Love said. “It’s been inspiring.”

Porter said Utica’s and Northaven’s total food collected added up to

1.5 tons. The rest had yet to been weighed.

He said the food collected at the five schools adds up to more people getting fed.

“We give out about 192,000 pounds of food a year,” he said. “This is a big help.”