By Christina Killion Valdez

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

It may have hurt and they had less hair by the end of it, but the LeRoy-Ostrander school principal and athletic director can say they served their community.

As part of the first-ever local Tyson Student Food Drive, a national competition that challenges high school students to get creative about collecting food donations for local food shelves, students at LeRoy-Ostrander school devised the game "Waxing for a Cause." They won second place for most spirit in the competition that attracted more than 20 area high schools.

For the competition, a collection box was set up in the school's commons for each of the six men who work there. Whoever had the most canned food in their box at the end of a week would have his legs waxed at a school assembly Oct. 30. A total of 216.8 pounds of food was brought in for Channel One Food Bank with Principal Aaron Hungerholt and Jason Jude, the athletic director, tied for first place.

Competition wraps up

The event wrapped up on Friday with Austin winning the food collection total for one division and Spring Grove winning in the other division.

The events were full of creative competitions, such as the LeRoy-Ostrander event.

Both men went through with the waxing, but Hungerholt came prepared.

"He took some advice from his wife and shaved them down a bit," said Tiffany Timm, the advisor for FFA, which organized the food drive along with the students in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America and the Leadership 101 class.

The school also held food drive competitions by grade level and went trick-or-treating for donations throughout LeRoy. Their goal was to raise 2,000 pounds of food before the final weigh-off Friday in a friendly competition among more than 20 area high schools participating in the Tyson Student Food Drive.

As of Thursday morning, LeRoy-Ostrander still had 380 pounds to go and wasn't giving up.

Every little bit helps, Timm said. "We've seen a definite increase in utilization of the local food shelf with parents getting laid off."

Surpassing goals

The students in the Student Service Club at Chatfield High School started the month-long competition with a goal of collecting 1,000 pounds of food. By the end they'd raised more than 7,000 pounds.

"Students have gotten into the competition and spirit of donating," said senior Stefani Elliott, president of the Student Service Club.

And they did so in harmony.

In an event they called "Tunes to Fill Their Spoons," the students spent an afternoon at Skippys grocery store in Chatfield singing to customers as a way of asking for and thanking people for donations.

"We used known songs and changed the words, like 'YMCA' was 'FOOD,'" Elliott said.

The group also trick-or-treated for cans, sought donations and held a food drive competition between the study hall classes to get students motivated and informed about the needs in the area, she said.

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