Can Drive Competition Winners Announced

STUCO’s annual can drive competition has come to a close. The winners of the most recent can drive competitions are cheer and Harbinger, which were announced via the @SMEClassof2017 Twitter account on Monday. So far STUCO’s tallies have shown that 7,858 total canned goods have been brought in, which gives East the lead in the district-wide competition.

STUCO’s can drive is held every year and benefits the Johnson County Christmas Bureau. Each grade’s class officers and representatives put on an event to raise money and nonperishable goods. This year, the seniors’ event was a competition between three sets of rivaling organizations in the school: soccer versus football, cheer versus drill team and the Harbinger versus the Hauberk.

“We find groups that we obviously all root for as a school, but that are competitive within each other,” student body president Mazie Brooke said. “For instance, we did soccer versus football because those are the two main boys’ sports going on in the fall.”

Because cheer and Harbinger were the winners of their respective competitions, they will each be awarded with doughnuts. Although football exceeded soccer in total number of cans, the competition is judged on cans per member of the organization, meaning soccer came in first, receiving bragging rights as their prize.

According to senior varsity cheer captain, Elyse Chinnock, the freshman, JV and varsity squads, were excited for the competition and motivated to win. Chinnock sent out a text in GroupMe asking for members to bring money to buy cans with.

“We had like $150 that I spent at Aldi and just like bought a bunch of bulk cans with,” Chinnock said. “It’s also for such a great cause, and I think that helps with the motivation.”

As for STUCO, setup for the can drives involves preparing tables and signs for each competition, making announcements at assemblies and via Twitter and counting up all the cans brought in. According to Brooke, each one is worth one point towards each organization’s score. That is then divided by the number of members in the club or sport, giving the grand total.