After weeks of making posters, begging for donations and asking students to fork over their spare change it was finally time for the Papermakers and Panthers to “Stuff the Bus.”
Camas and Washougal high schools faced off for the second annual food drive Friday. Local businesses and schools joined in the competition and together the two communities collected 72,120 pounds of food to benefit organizations that help the needy in Camas and Washougal.
“It’s our biggest event that our community does together,” Washougal student body president Cynthia Mace said.
“It really brings everyone together for one cause.”
The total collected far exceeded the 49,000 pounds collected last year, said Tabitha Shaffer with the Camas-Washougal Business Alliance.
This year, students from each school stuffed three buses.
The final total was 36,560 pounds from Camas and 35,560 from Washougal. To be fair, the number of students was factored in: 1,651 for Camas and 854 for Washougal.
Unlike last year, Washougal won the traveling trophy, with 41.6 pounds per student, over Camas’ 22.1 pounds per student.
“It really shows that Washougal has a lot of heart,” Mace said. “It’s amazing.”
“It was amazing how much people gave, considering the economy and the fact that most people have been affected monetarily,” Shaffer said. Last year’s smaller total fed needy folks for nine months, she said.
“This is going to not only last longer but they’ll probably be able to give more goods per family in need.”
Students from both high schools started cramming food and other goods into yellow schools buses at noon Friday.
In Washougal, school buses were escorted through town by the police and fire departments, sirens blaring and horns honking. As the buses made their way to the high school, business owners waved and younger students lined the fences at their schools.
Once at the high school, about 50 students in bright orange “Stuff the Bus” T-shirts loaded box after box of canned food into the buses adorned with balloons and posters. They fended off the cold weather with orange and black mittens and scarves and steaming cups of hot chocolate.
Within 30 minutes, the students had filled an entire school bus with boxes of macaroni and cheese, bags of dog food, cans of vegetables and sacks full of clothes.
In Camas, dozens of high-schoolers loaded boxes onto their own bus. The students neatly packed canned food into boxes and barrels and shuffled down the aisle to find an open space. They also stuffed food into storage compartments in the belly of the bus.
At the same time, a second bus visited each of the elementary and middle schools to gather contributions. A handful of students wearing Santa and elf hats carried the goods onto the bus while the high school’s jazz band played Christmas songs.
Two minutes
Earlier Friday, the Camas leadership class tried a last-ditch effort to raise money. They held a “miracle minute,” asking students to donate change and bills to purchase more food. In 60 seconds, they raised $950.
Shortly after noon, Washougal students got wind of the “miracle minute” at Camas High School. They scrambled to pull together their own minute of giving.
Washougal senior Brittany Shelley, who serves as the school’s senior social chair, was surprised by the generosity of her classmates and community.
“I’m so impressed,” she said. “You can tell the community is really into it.”
The Camas-Washougal Business Alliance sponsors the event and came up with the idea for the competition last year.
When the business alliance pitched it to the schools, Klein said her classmates were skeptical. The Papermakers wanted to challenge the Titans of Union, their major sports rival, she said. In the end, though, the Camas students saw Stuff the Bus as a way to unify the two small towns.
“We’ve kind of forgot about each other,” Klein said. “But this is bringing us together.”
John Branton of The Columbian contributed to this report.
