Chilliwack elementary school donates twice as many items to food bank as last year

The hearts of the students at McCammon elementary are big.

This year, the Chilliwack school collected more than twice as many non-perishable food items for the Salvation Army food bank compared to last year.

“Our whole staff was floored with the amount of items,” said principal Brad Driscoll.

McCammon collected 2,145 items, well above their average of 1,000 in previous years.

On Friday (Dec. 18) volunteers Laeloni Kronebusch and Jonathan Cayetano from Murray Honda arrived to pick up the boxes of food. They were just two of several volunteers from four Chilliwack car dealerships who helped transport the food over the course of two days.

Folks from Mertin GM, Chilliwack Ford and Valley Toyota also helped on Dec. 17 and 18 using their own vehicles to pick up the food from schools throughout the Chilliwack School District and bring it to the food bank.

At McCammon, Kronebusch and Cayetano had to make more than one trip in order to transport all the food that day.

At the beginning of the food drive, Driscoll made three promises to the 240 students: if they collected 1,000 items, vice principal Jaimee Charlie would wear a tutu; 1,500 items and he would wear a tutu; and if they brought in 2,000 items then office clerical Sharon Engstrom would dress up like an elf.

On Thursday, all three of them were dressed up.

Additionally, the class that collected the most items was awarded a hot lunch. Ms. Perera’s Grade 2/3 class donated 631 items and had pizza for lunch on Friday.

Driscoll was very proud of the generosity, saying McCammon is an “amazing” school with an equally supportive parent community.

“This year’s successful school food drive to support our local Salvation Army is another example of how the McCammon school community works together to be our best,” he said. “There were a lot of giving families this year.”

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