This article was published on KREM2 on May 26, 2016 by Matt Vergara
LINCOLN COUNTY, Wash. – The wildfires in summer 2015 destroyed homes and communities across the Inland Northwest and took a toll on firefighters. So students at Odessa High School stepped up in a big way to help the crews fighting the flames – and now the school is being rewarded for those efforts.
Odessa HS has a leadership program called Lead2Feed. Students learn about leadership and team skills. The program also offers a chance to do some good. By submitting a video of their schools charitable works, schools become eligible to win the Lead2Feed Challenge.
Odessa was one of those schools that won. Their prize? $35,000.
There were not any fires near Odessa HS last summer, but they could see the toll it took on their surrounding communities. The school learned the Mt. Tolman Fire Center in the Colville Indian Reservation was without food during the fire season. So students prepared, cooked, and delivered 1,500 meals to the fire center.
Students said finding the time to get everyone to cook was the challenging part, but they would cook and work on the project anytime they could. Morning, noon, and night to get it all done.
After submitting their entry video, Odessa was one of six schools selected to win the Lead2Feed Challenge and receive $35,000 in grant money — $25,000 of which went to charities of their choosing.
FBLA Student President Zoe Clark said these types of things cannot be done on your own.
“You can’t make big things happen on your own. You have to take people with you,” she said. “We couldn’t have done this project without our whole chapter and whole community.”
The remaining $10,000 was donated Odessa’s elementary school for new iPads and the Odessa Fire Department.