March sees a lot of activity for many of us. The plants start to get a little greener, daylight savings time helps kick away the long winter night blues, and the drama of March Madness storms into living rooms nation-wide.
But for students all across the Puyallup School District, March is also synonymous with charity. The third month signifies a whole string of activities around the area as local students take part in their annual March Gladness event.
March Gladness is a month-long event coordinated by Communities In Schools of Puyallup. The event instills both the need and the joy of giving in students, and it allows them to take an active part in activities held by many of the 32 schools located in the school district. This year was the fifth installment of March Gladness. And with thousands of students, from kindergarten to grade 12, participating in over 50 separate programs from 29 schools, this was the best one yet.
The benevolence of the Puyallup youth touched upon many issues, both local and global. Many schools went international by sending money and goods to foreign countries in need. Fruitland Elementary, for example, provided aid to victims of the Haiti earthquake by collecting 750 new or gently-used shoes in a shoe drive. Others, however, sought to better the local community around them, through food drives, toiletry collections, and teddy bear drives for local homeless children. Some even felt compelled to better their own surroundings by painting murals or cleaning up school campuses.
Fear not, sports fans; this year’s March Gladness wasn’t without a basketball matchup. In a popular event run by Ferrucci Junior High School, local police officers took on the school’s faculty in the Cops vs. Teachers Memorial Charity Basketball Game. The money raised benefited the Lakewood Police Independent Guild and the Pierce County Deputy Sheriff’s Independent Guild, in honor of fallen officers.
From penny collections to fitness classes, Communities In Schools of Puyallup’s March Gladness gives students in the district a chance to give back to their community and their world. “It has been a while since we brought a lot of schools together,” says Chelsea Jacobs, the affiliate’s AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer. “It was truly great to see.”