Union Middle School students party after food drive efforts paid off

December is a month many local students come together and give charitably to those in need. Union Middle School was no exception to the hard work and dedication it took to donate more than 3,800 canned goods to the Utah Food Bank.

“It was so great to see the enthusiasm of the kids as we promoted the drive and they started bringing in more and more food,” Student Body Officer Marshall Underwood said.

The class that collected the most food for each grade was invited to attend the party where breakfast was served and drawing tickets were handed out by the PTA. Bagels, donuts, and McDonald’s Egg McMuffins were served with juice or milk to drink.

Following the breakfast, PTA President Jody Koch drew several ticket stubs to allow winning students to come to the front and choose one of many prizes, mostly of bagged candy bars, that they had available.

Students invited Crescent View Middle School to compete with them in an effort to raise the bar on the challenge and Jiffy Lube matched every donation made. Students also competed against each other in classes, grades, and even got college football team names involved in the competition.

“When you brought in your cans, you got to say if you wanted them for BYU or Utah and then we got to see which team got more cans,” Student Body Officer Austin Blake said.

Utah fans ended up outshining BYU enthusiasts by just over 400 cans.

“We challenged the kids that if they brought in 3,500 cans, Assistant Principals Mr. Watts and Mrs. Bowen would dye their hair the last two days before break,” social studies teacher Dustin Worm said. “So they got to have blue and red stripes in their hair.”

Worm also told his students that he would grow and wear a mullet for one week if they met a set goal.

“I knew the challenge to make me look like an idiot would get them moving,” he said.

Kirt Motta, a social studies teacher who frequently works with The Road Home, challenged his students to “take this opportunity to go outside of yourselves and think about people who are certainly not as fortunate.”

He also jokingly told them to raid their pantries when their parents weren’t looking and grab all the food that they didn’t want to have made for dinner.

The speeches apparently worked because Motta’s students surpassed the rest of the school, bringing in 660 cans. Jenn Muir’s science classes were the runners up with 548. Muir also offered her students a personal incentive, which they embraced, that she would have a donut party for them in addition to the breakfast the school was hosting.

Union Middle ended up taking a close lead over Crescent View, with 3,894 cans, just 245 more than CVMS’s 3,649

“They were also doing other drives too,” Worm said. “They raised $6,000 for another organization, so they weren’t solely focused on the cans alone.”

The last day of the drive, more than 1,000 donations came in.

“I think it was nice that we did this food drive, especially around Christmas time, because it helped local families in our area to have a better Christmas,” Student Body Officer Kiki Tuileta said.