Turning Halloween into Food Bank benefit

The treat of more food for local needs outpaced the need for some Medical Lake High School students to collect goodies for their own sweet tooth on Halloween.

In a twist of the traditional cry of "trick or treat," heard at front doors across neighborhoods nearly everywhere, members of the school's Key Club came up with the idea and took it upon themselves to gather food for the needy.

Two of the student leaders were seniors Justyce Cogswell and Emilie Browning.

"We had an opportunity to go to a leadership conference earlier in the year," Browning said. The student body president at Gonzaga University was a guest speaker and he shared how his high school had conducted similar food drives.

"We thought it would be a real good thing to bring back to Medical Lake," she added.

The hope was that it would better help connect the community and the high school, while helping a good cause, Cogswell said.

"We would just knock on the doors and went early so a lot of trick-or treaters were not there," Browning said. "Hi, we're here with the Medical Lake Key Club and National Honor Society and we're collecting canned food," was the sales pitch, Browning added.

The army of Key Club members were often rewarded with donations of goodies that showed the resident's appreciation.

As a first-year effort, the drive was conducted with little advance notice. But still, the one-night collection brought in 355 pounds of canned food.

Terry Carver, the student support advisor, and in charge of campus security at MLHS, admits he was a bit skeptical when the idea was first presented. But the results certainly swayed him to not only embrace the initial idea, but to figure out how to expand for the future.

"They did one heck of a job," Carver said. "They knocked it out of the park," he added of the event that took place on Halloween of course, but also the same night as game six of the World Series that featured Houston and Los Angeles.

School principal Chris Spring asked Carver to expand it to his neighborhood in 2018. In its first try, the food collection took place only in the Fox Hollow subdivision.

Tatriana Muravez, National Honor Society advisor and a school counselor took part in the event. "For the first time we did a very good job and I only think we're going to build," she said. "The community made a big impact."

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].