Heritage students host food drive for service project

Two months of gift and food drives are boiling down into one student-written play, equipped with stop-motion, wrapping-tissue flowers, and a pantheon of gods from a variety of mythologies — for now.

“Don’t predict anything,” Heritage Middle School (HMS) seventh grader Virginia Andersen said. “It’ll all go wrong. Immediately.”

The HMS team of North Carolina Destination Imagination (NCDI) students worked in collaboration with the Mountain Aid Project (MAP) on the food and toy drives. MAP is a Western North Carolina nonprofit focused on disaster relief and long-term support.

The seven seventh graders students developed a scripted play they will present at the state competition on March 14 at HMS in Valdese. Per NCDI guidelines, the project will be judged based on story presentation, technology use, and overall community impact.

“It’s a great thing for kids to not only have wherewithal and perspective to look around for opportunities that they can apply themselves to in the community,” MAP Director of Operations David Moses said, “But, also to have the organizational skills to actually do something.”

The kids collected more than four dozen pieces of clothing and more than 40 toys by their Dec. 18 deadline, and are still collecting food items for their taco food drive that ends on Jan. 31.

“Those are not small impacts and it’s very cool to see people getting involved like that at an early age,” Moses said.

The drives are all part of the Give and Take Service Learning Challenge, one of seven STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) challenges hosted by the global nonprofit organization, Destination Imagination.

Moses said that MAP dispersed the collected gifts to children in DSS custody, as well as other families that approached the nonprofit, concerned they would be unable to provide toys for their kids.

The taco food drive items will be passed on to Big Yummy in Marion, where they will be served in a “pay as you can” weekly food distribution.

Despite finalizing the drives in coming weeks, the challenge still has several facets to iron out. The kids don’t seem to be worried about it, having already worked through plenty of kinks.

“You’re gonna learn skills,” second-year NCDI participant Magnolia Morse said, a collection of first-place trophies lining the classroom cabinets behind her. “You’re also gonna be pushed into situations where you don’t have the skills. Then, the decision — ask for help or figure it out.”

It was through Magnolia’s connections with MAP that the project found its community support. When MAP suggested a variety of projects to focus on, the HMS crew found their first point of contention.

Several kids wanted to do a taco food drive. The others wanted to do a gift drive. When tensions rose, the quietest student settled the fray.

“Matthew, in his wonderful wisdom and silence, when they were having — it was a meltdown — Matthew was like, ‘How about y’all just compromise,’” NCDI Affiliate Director and team manager Mike McQuaid said. “It was the only time he spoke up about the script. … Matthew kind of saved the team from imploding in early arguments.”

McQuaid went on to explain that it was common with the NCDI teams to struggle with cohesiveness, especially early on.

“For the first time, the kids are coming together and they’re experiencing project management and, in a sense, co-workers,” McQuaid said. “Co-workers don’t always see eye to eye, and they don’t always get along. These guys, they get along great, but they weren’t seeing eye to eye, and they all wanted their ideas.”

The quiet Matthew Donlavage leads development on the stop-motion animation. He plans to take photos of the paper doll gods, which will display on a screen during their eight-minute presentation.

“The best part has been being able to see my friends all the time,” first-year NCDI participant Miriam Skelton said, bracelets stacked on her wrist and sunglasses carefully propped on top of her head between a flurry of hair clips. “We can make our own ideas and, in a way, bring our ideas to life.”

McQuaid leaned in to explain that everything is led by the students. They made the decisions and paid for everything through fundraising. Each team is allowed a maximum budget of $175, which the HMS team earned through selling butterbraids to purchase supplies, T-shirts, and competition fees.

“Win, lose, draw, fail — it’s all them,” McQuaid said. “They understand the challenge. They dream it. They design it. They build it. They put it together. It’s my job, as their team manager, just to make sure that they have the materials that they need and request, and that they’re on task.”

As Virginia said, things often don’t go to plan, and their project may come out completely different by the time they compete in March. McQuaid said winners can choose to advance to global finals, held in Kansas City from May 21-24.

“They also get trophies, medals, bragging rights, and certain awards can be given out for creativity or engineering above and beyond the call of duty,” he said.

Food supplies and financial contributions can be dropped off at HMS in Valdese through Jan. 31.

To learn more about Destination Imagination, visit wearencdi.com.