Heart of Stark: Stark schools compete in Goodwill donation drive
In partnership with The Repository, every Monday, Stark Community Foundation is highlighting positive happenings in our community. Here’s to Good News Mondays!
In friendly competitions between rival Stark County schools, local communities are competing against each other both under the Friday night lights and in a donation drive for Goodwill’s Drive to Victory program.
Each week, a donation trailer is parked at two participating high schools leading up to their Friday football game to collect clothes and household items. At the end of each week, Goodwill weighs the donations and the school with the most donations wins a $250 scholarship.
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Earlier this month was the first Stark County competition between McKinley Senior High School and Perry High School — which McKinley won with donations totaling 5,550 pounds. In total, more than 10,000 pounds in material donations were collected for Goodwill between the two communities.
Those donated items will be processed and sold in its local network of seven retail stores throughout Stark County. The revenue from the donations support a wide network of Goodwill community programs, including employment training for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment, parenting classes, family strengthening programs for those in crisis and rape crisis services.
“Donations of clothing and housewares are the lifeblood of our organization and help to support programming that touched the lives of thousands of people right here in our community,” said Anne Richards, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio. “Kudos to the students, families and community members that contributed to the Drive to Victory competition. They are changing lives for good!”
The remaining Stark County match-ups include Alliance and Carrollton during the week of Sept. 26, GlenOak and Louisville the week of Oct. 3, and Jackson and North Canton the week of Oct. 17.
Acceptable donations include houseware and home furnishing, small appliances, furniture, linens, clothing for children and adults, holiday decorations and many other miscellaneous items. Learn more and see the full donation guide at goodwillgoodskills.org/drive-to-victory.
The Stark Community Foundation helps individuals, families, businesses and nonprofits achieve their philanthropic goals through a variety of charitable funds and strategic initiatives. Ranked in the top 10% of community foundations in the country, the foundation and its family of donors have granted $215 million to nonprofits since 1963. Learn more at www.starkcf.org.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Heart of Stark: Schools support Goodwill in Drive to Victory program
