Westlake business students compete for charity
‘Wolverine Apprentice’ teams gather food, supplies for homeless
The marketing and entrepreneurship students of Westlake High School are “taking giving back to the community” to a whole new level next week.
Modeled after the reality television competition “The Apprentice” hosted by presidential candidate Donald Trump, marketing and entrepreneurship teacher Adrian Carroll has created “Wolverine Apprentice,” challenging his students to bring the lessons from their classroom out into the school and wider community to collect supplies for charity.
“I want them to learn marketing, advertising and promotion,” Carroll said. “They did research on LifeStyles of Maryland, found out what they needed, which is pretty much everything.”
Two teams of seven students each will be holding donation drives beginning May 16 for the La Plata nonprofit LifeStyles which provides emergency assistance to the homeless and those at risk of home- lessness Maryland.
“We provide everything from basic safety net services, including food, clothing and toiletry items, all the way to providing housing,” said Corae Young, assistant director of LifeStyles.
One group of students, Team Ambition, will seek donations of nonperishable foods, said team leader Courtney Hughes, 18, a senior at Westlake.
“There are so many homeless people who don’t have any food, and I think this is a good way for us to give back to the community,” Hughes said.
The other group, Team
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Southern PINK (Positive, Inspiring, Noble and Kind) will gather toiletries, clothing and other nonfood items, said team leader Elissa Decker, 17, a senior at Westlake.
Decker said she and Hughes both chose LifeStyles as the charity they wanted to support.
“It’s a great charity. They work with homeless people, they work with people who are in tough situations, and they do a lot of good in the community in different areas,” Decker said. “It was hard to pick whether to do food or clothing, because they need so many things for all of their different programs.”
Both groups will be doing promotions and challenges in their school and in the Charles County community to gather the supplies for LifeStyles, Carroll said.
“The purpose of this is to teach my students how to go out and do marketing and advertising in what I have been teaching them in class, and also having a chance for the kids to give back to their community in Charles County,” Carroll said.
The winner will be determined in the following week based on the amount of goods collected. Carroll Young said the nonprofit was honored to have been chosen as the recipient for the competition.
“The items that they collect are all things we need to distribute to the com- munity, whether it’s people coming to our food pantry that’s open each weekday or whether it’s us taking it out to people who are living in encampments,” Young said.
She said it is estimated that at least 500 homeless individuals reside in Charles County, not including those who are currently residing in shelter facilities.