As another holiday season comes and goes through Broomfield High School, so do tens of thousands of canned and nonperishable foods. To us, it’s practically routine now. Student Council has brought back the Canned Food Drive to raise food and money to donate to Broomfield Fish, and this year it came with a new look.

The drive lasted an entire month this time around, starting October 28th and ending November 28th. Instead of an open competition throughout the entire school, the teachers and clubs were divided up into a bracket and directly competed against each other between pick-up dates. Although it had a slow start, after Halloween the teachers got their game faces on and started putting on the afterburners.

This year’s drive looked quite different than the past few years. Typically, the final two teachers going head to head against each other included Mrs. Marchi and her ramen forts versus Mr. Hindman and his throne of cans.

This year, however, with Marchi’s early fall from the bracket and Hindman taking leave to care for his newly born baby (adorable), there were some new names in the draws that were looking to make up for the two usual competitors. Mr. Lay made his way into the final four versus Mrs. Bryner and the Theatre department, coming up just short of qualifying. Bryner and the Theatre department put up some whopping numbers since the beginning, and kept a steady pace until the final matchup against Mrs. Brown, who really put a dent into the competition this year with almost 200 cans per person!

Bryner talked about her contribution to the competition, “I think the Canned Food Drive is awesome! I’m not sure I liked this year’s set up with the bracket because many teachers gave up very early, but I still think it’s a great way to show support and give back to our community.” With a department as strong and giving as the Broomfield Theatre department, Bryner knew she could really contribute to the cause. “I was not surprised at all at how well my department did. Theatre kids kick butt! They worked really hard the whole way through, and Trick or Treat So Kids Can Eat gave them that edge in the beginning, and they just kept bringing it home,” she said.

For an entire month, the stacks of cans were piled up nearly to the ceiling in Mr. Leonard’s room. Student Council would be in there every other day carting in thousands of cans and organizing the food. Leonard’s room never remained… the cleanest. However, he knew that the meaning behind the food drive was more important than the mess it made in his room. “It’s funny, I have the most cans in any classroom in the whole school, yet I never win,” he said jokingly. “Yeah it’s a mess, but it’s worth it for the cause.”

One of the coolest parts of the drive is the last day when all of the Blue Crew leaders, freshman class, and teachers come together to organize the food in Wilkerson Gym and carry them out to the loading truck together. Often, the loading would take much longer than anticipated, but this year we were able to complete the process in 45 minutes.

Our goal for the drive this year was to get above our count from last year: 35,000 cans. This year, our count was 24,418 cans. With a slower start than usual, a different competition layout, and a few key competitors out of the running this year, it was almost expected. Although we didn’t reach our goal, we still worked together as a community and collected tens of thousands of cans to donate to families who need that extra help, especially during the holidays. Regardless of the outcome, everyone who participated (whether it be collecting cans, donating money, helping with the loading, etc.) should feel accomplished and proud, and all of Broomfield High School and Broomfield Fish thanks you. Let’s keep up the pace for next year, eh?