Huskies host successful food drive

SANDPOINT — Northside Elementary food drive was a big success this year with students and staff collecting 464 pounds of food.

All the food was donated to the Bonner Community Food Bank.

Sara Pyle, president of Northside Parent Teacher Organization, said that the food bank was very appreciative. This is the first year that the Huskies have done a food drive like this.

Northside has often run food drives in one form or another from year to year for the food bank or kinderhaven, said Pyle. This year with having no in-person events, PTO members decided they wanted to do something different to engage the kids.

Pyle said that the PTO wanted to find a way to show students that the learning could still continue at home and be fun.

“We wanted to incorporate educational concepts into a fun activity for kids to do at home so we started a monthly incentive program,” she said.

October’s theme was reading so students participated in "Booktober Bingo.” A bingo board was sent home filled with reading challenges like read in a comfy chair, read to an adult, read a chapter book, memorize a poem, read in a fort and much more.

Once the young reader marked off five activity squares in a row they received bingo and were entered into a drawing for a $20 scholastic gift certificate.

With November being Thanksgiving, the PTO wanted to find a way to encourage the kids to give, said Pyle, which is why they decided on the food drive.

“We added a writing component as well and asked them to create a recipe,” she said. “The directions were specific, but there really weren't any rules. The point was to have fun.”

As long as the kids tried and wrote something down, Pyle said the group was happy.

Five lucky November winners will be announced soon and they will receive Husky gear in the form of hats and shirts to use as prizes.

For December the PTO is putting the finishing touches on a geography bingo created by principal Jacki Crossingham, who happens to have a passion for geography.

“So far this one is shaping up to be another great activity and I'm so excited to see what our participation looks like,” said Pyle.

Pyle said the last two months she has been completely blown away by the participation of Northside students in these activities.

“[Participation] is a choice, not a requirement, and our Huskies are choosing to continue to have fun with learning at home which is just so amazing to see,” she said.