SGA, leadership strive to keep Second Harvest momentum with new fundraisers

Second Harvest is in full swing, and Bearden’s leadership and SGA are determined to keep the ball rolling. In addition to some old favorites, a number of new fundraisers are coming up that will put a new twist on the annual food drive.

For years, Bearden competed against Farragut to see who could collect the most cans for Second Harvest. However, when Farragut dropped out of the competition, Bearden began to lose some of its enthusiasm. SGA and leadership are striving to rekindle that previous fire with a number of new fundraisers and events in addition to some old favorites.

“Farragut was a way for people to get excited… and for awhile, people were living on the memory of that, but now we’ve got freshmen that don’t even know that we used to compete with Farragut,” SGA sponsor Mrs. Rachel Harmon said.

Determined to ignite Bearden’s competitive spirit once again, SGA and leadership planned a dodge-ball tournament as a new addition to this year’s fundraisers.

“We wanted some kind of competition because our school kind of thrives on competition,” SGA president Kierstyn Freeman said. “That’s just the social climate of our school.”

The top-collecting advisory from each class played the top advisories from the other three classes, based on a collection that took place the week before. The match took place on Friday during the Bearden vs. Farragut pep rally, and was a burst of furious ball-flinging fun.

With the dodgeball game past, Second Harvest organizers look with high anticipation to the next new fundraiser. This year, Bearden will host a telethon, which will be broadcast on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. It will feature performances by different Bearden groups, such as the dance team and cheerleaders, as well as some other activities still being decided upon; one possible activity mentioned was a can-sculpting contest.

“We’re excited to have it, and we think it’s going to help because it’s going to encourage not only Bearden but the community to participate,” Freeman said.

Some of the footage will be live, some of it will be pre-recorded, and the entire program will last about an hour.

Another new idea in the works is bringing the spirit of Halloween into the mix. This year, students will have the option to wear a Halloween costume to school by donating $2 to Second Harvest. Costumes will be expected to follow the guidelines of the regular dress code.

As far as traditional fundraisers go, 10-in-10 and Make a Change are two of Bearden’s most successful Second Harvest fundraisers. 10-in-10, which will take place on Oct. 30, asks each student to bring in $5 for a total of $10,000 from the student body. Although Bearden does not always reach its goal of $10,000, this has consistently been one of the most successful fundraisers due to the widespread support from the student body.

Make-a-Change is another Second Harvest tradition that calls for students to search their pockets, backpacks, and car cup holders for loose change. Although it usually doesn’t raise as much as 10-in-10, there is still a high level of participation because everyone can find some spare change for the cause. This year, SGA and leadership want to collect in the parking lots because many students have loose change in their cars that they would like to donate. This will take place on Thursday.

Both competitions will take place in advisory so that the collections can count toward the class competition, another change from previous years.

“I think this year we’ve been about on track with what we have in the past couple of years…but we’re trying to get it back up,” Second Harvest co-chair Piper Givens said.