Editor's Note:  This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's Voices of Youth Battle Creek program which is supported by the BINDA Foundation, City of Battle Creek, Battle Creek Community Foundation, and the Michigan Afterschool Partnership. This series features stories created by Calhoun County youth in partnership with professional mentors, as well as feature stories by adult writers that examine issues of importance to local youth.

OLIVET, MI — Every year, the Olivet High School student council works tirelessly to plan, organize, and do things that benefit the school and community. One way that they do this is by running the annual Olivet High School food and coin drive.

The popular annual drive keeps students busy for a couple of weeks. Donations are distributed throughout the school year. Here is a schedule:

Wednesday, November 20th, 7:00 a.m.: Before school one morning, Olivet High School. Student council members meet to discuss the food and coin drive that they are organizing. They break up into committees, based on who is doing what job.

Sophia PellFood about to be transported to the local food bankTuesday, November 26th (Last day before Thanksgiving Break) 9:00 a.m.: Every Olivet High School student sits in the school auditorium and watches a video produced by student council members. The video was made to inform the school about the coin and food drive. It provides statistics about the local community and gets students excited about giving.

Monday, December 2nd, 9:10 a.m.: Student council members, with the help of the National Honor Society, collect food, jars of coins, and cash from each classroom in the school.

Friday, December 6th, 9:10 am: The last of the food and coins are collected from each classroom by student council members. Student council president Bri Faulkner adds up the final items and writes them on a chart for the whole school to see. 

Sophia PellFood about to be transported to the local food bankFriday, December 13th, 7:30 am: National Honor Society members turn in the last of their Adopt-A-Family gifts that were bought with the money from the cash and coin half of the food drive.

Thursday, May, 1st 12:00 pm: The last of the canned and dry foods from the food drive run out at the Olivet Good Neighbor Food Pantry.

The process repeats itself with the help of the Olivet High School student council the following year.

Every year, Olivet High School hosts a food and coin drive. The drive is run by the student council, with help from the National Honor Society when needed. According to student council advisor Brityn Rabakon, “I think it is important to raise funds, collect food, and give back to people here that are going to benefit from what we are doing.” Rabakon stated that the most impactful thing that the student council does each year is run the food and coin drive. 

Sophia PellStudent Council Leaders counting food and coinsThe food and coin drives impact multiple organizations in the community. One is the National Honor Society. NHS president Sophia Pell states “We use the coin drive money to fund our Adopt-A-Family project which helps so many Olivet families.” The food collected from the drive goes to the Good Neighbor Food Pantry in Olivet, the food helps sustain the food pantry until May. 

This year the students and staff of Olivet High School managed to raise 3,492 dollars in food and supplies. Student Jenna Mertz says,  “It makes me feel happy knowing that I am supporting someone who might not have the means to get food and things like that.” The food collected during the food drive will help Olivet families have meals for the holidays and beyond.

The food and coin drive is not the only thing that the student council organizes throughout the school year. The student council at Olivet is tasked with being schoolwide spirit leaders. Rabakon says, “Our biggest things that we do throughout the year are the two homecomings … fall homecoming and winter homecoming.” Simply put, at Olivet, if the student council did not exist, there would be no homecoming. 

Sophia PellOlivet High School student council students sorting food collected for the food bankOlivet is a very small, tight-knit community. Most citizens of Olivet are alumni of the high school. Homecoming is a chance for all community members to get together at a football game or a basketball game depending on whether it is fall or winter homecoming.

The student council spends weeks brainstorming to plan the homecoming dance, the pep assembly, spirit week, and festivities during the homecoming game. Raboken states “It is our goal to bring school spirit, get people involved, and bring excitement.” Spirit Week is a highly anticipated event in the school. The four grades battle to win points throughout the week. They can get points by doing things like dressing up, building floats, decorating hallways, winning a dodgeball or volleyball tournament, winning pep assembly games, or playing powder puff football and volleyball, all of which is organized by the student council.

Giving back to the school is not the only reason students should join the student council, Rabakon says, “Knowing that you are doing something that is impacting your school and doing something outside of your comfort zone… giving yourself the opportunity to grow is something that you might not find in other places. You can also get to know other people outside of your circle of friends.”

Students in the student council don’t just give, they can get something out of participating in the student council too. They get leadership experience while making new friends and getting out of their comfort zone. Student council president Bri says  “I get to make the school, and community better.”

Sophia PellStudent Council Leaders counting food and coinsParticipating in afterschool clubs like student council develops students into leaders, and helps them gain useful skills that they can use later in life. According to Rabakon, “Student council is not for everyone.” However, she recommends every student should get involved in some kind of club, sport, or organization. Being involved in afterschool activities helps students gain skills they wouldn’t have otherwise, such as leadership, teamwork, planning, organizing, and many other valuable skills needed later in life.

She adds that it is important that students get involved, specifically in today's day and age where teenagers spend a lot of time online. Social interaction is super important and student council is just one of the ways that teenagers can get involved at their school.


Sophia Pell is an Olivet High School Senior. She runs track and plays volleyball. In her free time, she can normally be found reading or sneaking into local tracks with her teammates to get some extra practice in.