By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Students and staff at Union City Schools went the extra mile – and then some – when it came to helping the less fortunate for the upcoming holiday season.
Members of the Purple and Gold Nation donated over 17,000 non-perishable food items to a pair of charitable organizations that will feed and provide assistance to those in need during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The amazing acts of kindness more than doubled the donations of last year in what has become an annual ritual of UC Schools students and faculty helping the less fortunate in and around holiday time.
“Every day, I find myself discovering another reason to be proud of our people,” Union City Director of Schools Wes Kennedy said. “From the youngest of our students to the oldest, from first-year teachers and staff to those who’ve been here for 20 and 25 years, the folks who make up Union City Schools are the absolute best.”
The food items will be divided equally between the Obion County Ministerial Association and Chimes for Charity.
The OCMA will again orchestrate the annual “Feeding of the 5,000” grocery distribution and a Thanksgiving Soul Food Café meal, incorporated in recent years by the Refuge Church. Both events will be staged Nov. 23 at the Obion County Fairgrounds.
The Union City Jaycees and J’cettes will once more spearhead the 87th annual Chimes for Charity food basket program. Those baskets, which help those Obion Countians in need, will be delivered on Christmas Eve morning, as has been the tradition.
Students on all three UC Schools campuses contributed to the mass amounts of food collected for this year’s distribution.
At UC Elementary, students and staff donated more than 9,200 items, collectively earning two free dress code days. There were class competitions in each grade as well, with winners earning pizza parties.
The annual “Turkey Trot,” which gave students extra incentive for laps ran or walked in physical education class, added up to big numbers with students soliciting sponsors to donate cans/food items per lap.
Lindsey Beth Atkins’ Kindergarten group had the most donations of any class with 658.
Among the class winners and their teachers were:
PreK – Cindy Thralls
Kindergarten – Lindsey Beth Atkins
1st Grade – Tina Grissom
2nd Grade – Paula Houston
3rd Grade – Laura Nipp
4th Grade – Corey Anne France
The Beta Club at UC Middle School was in charge of gathering, sorting and loading the food items for pick-up on its campus.
School officials said the 6,500 cans/perishable goods were the most ever donated by UCMS students and personnel.
And, at Union City High School, Key Club officers oversaw the collection and organization of more than 1,000 cans.