Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
October 16, 2002
Mullen High School students top collectors of food for the needy
One-week drive assembled more than 16,000 cans of food for Catholic Charities
By Jack Bacon
Students at J.K. Mullen High School wrapped up their school day Oct. 8 by loading 16,332 cans of food they collected the week before onto a truck for transport to Channel 9 and then to Catholic Charities to replenish the agency's stock of food for the poor.
The collection total made the school the winner of a 9 Cares Colorado Shares-sponsored com-
petition for metro area high schools. Regis Jesuit High School finished second with 8,500 cans.
Principal Linda Brady said students really got into the contest, which was subdivided at Mullen into competition among the approximately 40 home-rooms sponsored by the student council. All the cans were collected from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4 by all four classes.
Students packaged the cans in 500 boxes donated by DeLine Box Co. President David DeLine, a 1983 Mullen graduate.
English teacher Steven Craig, student council sponsor whose home-room finished third in the intramural competition, said most of the cans were acquired by students' cash contributions to a fund that was used to buy them from supermarkets.
He said that system caught on quickly after one student relayed his mother's objection to having most of her pantry cleaned out.
Brady said students are quick to seize opportunities to serve. Sixty hours' community service is a graduate requirement for every student at Mullen, and she had no problem committing to Channel 9's request that each competing high school (seven entered) collect at least 1,000 cans for the drive.
"I said we could do that," she said, because Mullen students regularly collect food for the needy every year. The school has a coed enrollment of 1,021.
"Channel 9 was amazed," she added.
The effort also impressed the crowd of dignitaries that was gathering as the truck was being loaded for the dedication of the new Frank Sferra Research Center adjacent to the building where the cans were stored, which used to be the school library.
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