The night of June 18 could prove to be one heck of a night at Center School for the students and one brave staff member who put a good night’s sleep on the line to alleviate hunger in the community.
The students at Center School and Old Hammondtown have been collecting canned goods for the local food pantry since the beginning of the school year. The two schools combined raised about 2,000 cans by the end of May, making their “Canning Hunger” campaign a success at that point.
But during the first week of June, the trajectory of the fundraiser took an interesting and unexpected turn when Associate Principal Kevin Tavares unveiled his own stash of 480 canned and dry goods. He then challenged the students to collect another 480 to match within a fortnight, promising that, if the students succeeded in beating Tavares’ total, he would spend the night sleeping on the roof of Center School. That, of course, sent the students scurrying for food.
Beth Oleson and Jaime Balsis of the health office came up with the fundraising idea as a way of bringing up the topic of hunger into the schools, while demonstrating how easy it can be to make a difference.
“It’s also a way of giving back to the community,” said Oleson. “The community is very good to us.”
Over the coming weeks, the grade levels started to challenge each other in a competition to see which grade could collect the most cans, and soon students were hanging shamrocks and other symbols on walls and windows representing each student who donated food.
“Everybody kind of took a different spin on it,” said Oleson.
Grade 2 ultimately was the winner, having collected 455 food items for the food pantry shelves.
And meanwhile, staff members were participating in a little challenge of their own. They each contributed a small entry fee of sorts and pooled their money together in a friendly wager to see who could lose the most weight between the end of February vacation and the start of April vacation. The winner would get the pool of money.
Tavares won that competition and he took his winnings to the grocery store and purchased the 480 food items to donate to the food pantry. He presented the food along with his challenge and took the fundraiser to the next level.
“I was humbled,” said Oleson. “He made it fun for the kids.”
Tavares said he thought it would just be a fun way to wrap up the school year. And what is crazier than the possibility of seeing your principal climb out of a window, onto a ledge, with his pajamas and a sleeping bag ready to camp out under the stars on the roof of your school? To an elementary school student, not much.
If the students succeed in beating Tavares’ 480 cans, at the end of the school day on June 18, Tavares will climb onto the roof in front of the entire school and will not come down until he himself can manage to collect enough additional canned goods to match the amount the students raised to beat him at the challenge!
“While I’m up there I’m going to be rallying friends and family members to come and help me raise enough canned goods so I can get down,” said Tavares. “I’ll have to send out my lifelines to get me off the roof.”
Tavares said he took some time trying to come up with the perfect dare, considering ideas he had heard other people did before coming up with the rooftop sleepover idea.
“I wasn’t going to shave my head,” said Tavares.
Tavares said he will likely be up on the rooftop all night long until the next day, the last day of school, until he can match what the students collect – that is, if they can manage to beat him.
As of June 9, the students had only collected half of what they need to send Tavares to his rooftop bed on the 18th. But there is still time. They have until the end of the school day on the 18th to match Tavares’ 480 cans.
“We’re halfway there, so we need a big push,” said Tavares. As of press time, the total was 285 cans.
And who knows, said Tavares. “There might be a secret stash hidden in the bathroom somewhere. They might be creating this false sense of security,” he laughed.
So the students have one last chance at “Canning Hunger in the Community,” as the posters around the school say.
Tell Tavares that you hope he loses, and he will reply, “So do I.”
“Hunger,” said Tavares, “doesn’t get to take a summer vacation.”
By Jean Perry
