Project Care ‘superhero’ squads restock food pantry shelves at church
PAL Leadership Team project creates competition at Armada High
Armada High School students aimed to serve as superheroes to one local food pantry this January, restocking shelves against the archenemy of hunger during the critical post-holiday season.
The Project Care competition helped combat post-holiday boredom for Armada High School students from Jan. 10 to Jan. 26. All first hour classes sought to collect personal and food items for St. Mary Mystical Rose Catholic Church in Armada, which houses and coordinates one of Macomb County’s food distribution programs. Armada High School collections were dropped off on Wednesdays and Fridays during the competition dates.
First hour classes schoolwide competed against each other, working to earn points accumulated through item donations. Teachers received collection boxes with the list of items requested, and how many points each item was worth. For example, items such as toilet paper were worth between 15 and 25 points depending on size and quantity, items such as cooking oils were worth five points, and items such as baby food were worth two points. Classes that reached first or second place in the competition earned breakfast prizes.
Students also worked within groups of classes as Superhero Teams for an additional prize. The groups, or districts, were divided by subject with some adjustments to allow for an equal number of students throughout the districts. For example, group Captain America represented social studies, group Spider-Man represented English. The public was also invited to contribute to the campaign by dropping off donations at the Armada High School office or directly at St. Mary’s. All class and group competition winners were scheduled to be announced on Jan. 27, with prize distributions set for Feb. 7.
“Project Care has been held in January for the past two years because of the block schedule change due to COVID-19. Also around the holiday season there are already many donations happening. After the holiday season, donations are often overlooked and forgotten about even though people are in need all year,” PAL Leadership Team Philanthropy President Sabrina Grove said.
Project Care was organized by the Armada Police Athletic League (PAL) Leadership Team. The team is known as PLT. PAL is a nonprofit organization that offers summer camp programs. Camp is held at Center Lake Bible Camp, 15204 20 Mile Road in Tustin, Michigan and generally runs for about a week. The camp is operated by volunteer staff for middle-school aged students.
PAL Leadership Team is a training program for high school students involved with the camp, designed to teach skills for working with younger children as well as planning and leading activities. Being a part of the PAL Leadership Team is a key step towards becoming a PAL junior/senior counselor at the camp. Senior counselors are those age 18 and up. PAL Leadership Team students participate in many things outside of camp, including community and philanthropic activities, team building and situational training.
Grove, an 18-year-old senior at Armada High School, said the PAL Leadership Team has about 70 students. Project Care, she said, has been a project of the team for at least a decade.
“January is the best time to conduct the collection and competition because money can be tight during the holiday season and there are already many donations generally happening around that time that can affect the amount donated,” Grove said.
She added her fellow students can benefit from the experience of the collection because it allows them to advocate within their classes, teaches leadership skills and creates greater social awareness.
“Also, the kids in PLT learn problem solving and logistic skills to pull off events like this, hopefully taking the skills they have learned and applying them to do great good in the world moving forward,” Grove said.