Annually, Fenton and Linden schools compete against each other in a “Stuff the Bus” event, collecting cans for food baskets. This year’s event took place on Oct. 4. The event is run by the Fenton Area Research and Referral who started it around 25 years ago. Fenton High’s own KEY Club helped out as well by collecting canned goods and non perishable food items as admission into the big rival game against Linden. If Fenton High students brought in five or more non-perishable food items, they are able to get into the game free of charge.
Stuff the Bus is an event put on to pull support for the community. Canned goods and non-perishable food are collected to give to those in need around the area.
“Our community has always been very generous in helping families in need,” Kiwanis president Mark Suchowski said. “The holiday season is when we celebrate with our family members and friends, and take time to help our neighbors in need.”
Suchowski is also on the board of the Fenton High chapter of KEY club. KEY club is a student run-organization chartered by the Fenton chapter of the Kiwanis Club.
Stuff the Bus helps to create over 140 food filled baskets to distribute to families around the Fenton community for Thanksgiving. These baskets include many canned goods, dry food like crackers and a Thanksgiving turkey for the family to enjoy.
Any “leftover” food items after all the baskets are given out is given back to Kiwanis for them to keep and store until Christmas time. During the month of December, the organization does relatively the same thing by providing baskets to families, but they swap out the turkey for a holiday ham.
Stuff the Bus is an opportunity for the community to join together and support those that need help around it.
“This year was very successful,” Suchowski said. “We collected over 1,500 food items.”
Linden and Fenton schools go against each other and make the can collecting into a competition. This year with 33% more cans, Linden took home the trophy and Superintendent Russell Ciesielski accepted the trophy on behalf of all Linden High students.
There were a total of about 300 students from both schools that, on average, brought five cans each. At the end of the night, Linden had collected around 900 cans and Fenton only had 600.
Despite losing the trophy this year, the students of Fenton High collected lots of food items that are going to help support the community and the families in it.
