Mid-East CTC students raise more than $4K for the Salvation Army

ZANESVILLE, OH- Mid-East Career and Technology Centers’ Zanesville Campus is celebrating a season of generosity today. Students from the National Honor Society and Student Council wrapped up a campus wide coin drive that turned small change into a major gift for the Salvation Army. And thanks to a boost from the J.W. and M.H. Straker Foundation, their impact grew even larger.

Digital Media students led the fundraising with more than seven hundred dollars, followed by Criminal Justice with more than four hundred fifty. Several other programs topped one hundred, and every career-tech program contributed. Students raised two thousand one hundred seventy dollars, and the Straker Foundation added two thousand more, bringing the donation to four thousand one hundred seventy.

“We’ve got like a thousand Angels out right now, so this money is going to help, could you imagine, I know I have daughters and grandchildren and just trying to get through Christmas with them but when you’re thinking of a thousand children we’re trying to buy for and almost six hundred food boxes now, it’s an incredible amount of money that we spend every year, and we absolutely can not do it without the help of the community,” said Salvation Army Envoy George Bates.

The drive grew from students’ desire to give back as the holidays approached and the campus wide participation made the outcome especially meaningful.

“I think it’s really cool how each program donated something, they each contributed to the cause and just adding it all up creates these huge numbers, and just knowing what it’s going to is really cool,” said Student Council President Josie Swartz.

The contribution now moves into the Salvation Army’s holiday efforts, carrying the students’ generosity into homes across the community.