Salumbides’ classes prevail in Samo’s annual Canned Food Drive
Sam ReamerStaff WriterThe Samo Holiday Canned Food Drive ended on Nov. 23 with one clear victor: Rose Ann Salumbides, whose combined total made up 585 of the over 600 cans brought in. The food drive was run by the Associated Student Body (ASB), which delivered the cans to the West Side Food Bank.Salumbides is pleased with the success of her classes, but was surprised by the performance of the rest of the school. She feels that the best way to get students to bring in cans and help the community in general is by motivating them.“It’s disappointing that, in a school of over 3,000 students, we couldn’t do better. It doesn’t take that much time to really address the issue and I think it makes us all better as a school and a community if we can take a few minutes to explain what’s happening,” Salumbides said. “We should try to encourage students to volunteer, whether it’s with a little extra credit or just challenging them.”Salumbides also said that things like the canned food drive directly relate to a focus of her curriculum — community.“One of the big things I do in all my classes at the beginning of the year is define community and what they want their community to be like,” Salumbides said. “We talk about the role with the individual in that community, so whenever anything comes up like the canned food drive we try to do the most we can. It’s all about how we want this place to be bigger and better and so we all have to do the most we can individually.”Freshman Catherina Kachadoorian, who brought in the most cans in all five of Salumbides’ classes, said she was motivated by Salumbides as well as by her own desire to win.“The reason I brought in so many cans was because Mrs. Salumbides really motivated me with her good attitude and extra credit. I also really wanted to win the pie party,” Kachadoorian said.Kachadoorian also said that she felt like she really made an impact on her community.“Bringing in cans made me feel more sound in my community,” Kachadoorian said. “It felt good to be able to think these people have food now and I helped them, so now they’ll be living longer and happier.”sreamer@thesamohi.com