Thanks to the Spartan community, Skills USA was able to raise 433 pounds of food for the TJ families in need, as well as for the Food Bank of the Rockies.
SkillsUSA teams up with TJ students, faculty, and staff to provide food for those in need during the holidays. Photo by Matt Spampinato
SkillsUSA is a club that competes nationally in subjects such as 3-D animation, photography, and web design. Skills USA members are also in charge of coming up with service projects that benefit the community, such as their most recent one.
CCT Magnet Teacher and Skills USA Sponsor Jerry Esparza, shared some information on what new community service project Skills USA just completed. “The members of Skills USA came up with ideas on their own about what organization, cause, or charity they want to help. Then, they came up with ways to raise the money or food or items to the charity of their choice and put those thoughts into action in order to benefit others,” said Esparza. “This time the members decided to help out a group closer to home; 10 TJ families who would otherwise go without a Thanksgiving dinner will receive non-perishable items from fellow Spartans. The rest of the items will be donated to the Food Bank of the Rockies.”
Troy Fangmeir, a junior here at TJ and one of the Co-Presidents for Skills USA explained his involvement, “Myself and Erich Deutsh helped organize certain things. We also helped pick the dates and what period the cans should go to,” said Fangmeir. The students of Thomas Jefferson have brought in many canned goods to their 4th period teachers to help out the families in need. Social Studies Teacher Kimberly Holtman‘s class raised the most cans and, thanks to the Fangmeir family, they will receive a pizza party.
Not only has SkillsUSA been collecting cans for the 10 TJ families, but they are also raising money. “During lunch we set up outside the office and asked for donations from fellow Spartans in order to raise money for the families in need,” explained John Cushing, Vice President of Skills USA, who was also in charge of manning the table.
SkillsUSA members really advocated for the school’s participation in this event. “We encouraged everyone to donate non perishable items or money if they could,” said Charlie Botnick, a junior and public relations officer for SkillsUSA. “It seems like a simple thing, but in the big picture every donation helped.”
The members of Skills USA have all played their part in making sure these families receive the canned food and money necessary to help them during the holidays. The officers have managed to collect a total of enough non-perishable items to fill two entire flat bed carts, weighing 433 pounds. They also raised a total of $400 in cash for the 10 Thomas Jefferson families in need. Not only did they raise enough money and non-perishable items for the 10 families, they raised enough for 20 families. In total SkillsUSA raised almost $3000 in canned goods. “The members of skills USA would really like to thank the fellow Spartans for their donations,” said Elizabeth May, the Skills USA Treasurer. “All these donations are going to help an important cause and couldn’t be done without the help of all the TJ Spartans.”
