Posts Tagged ‘Aptos Jr. High School’

NEWSFLASH!!!The Kids make it happen!!!Grind Out Hunger smashes 100,000lb goal!

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Kids…are POWERFUL!!!!

I am overcome with emotion while writing this blog…Grind Out Hunger set a goal of 100,000lbs for the 2009-2010 Kids Helping Kids Holiday Food Drive…Bly Morales, Lisa Allyn and myself planned speaking engagements, distributed DVD’s, spoke at dozens of schools across Santa Cruz County, built a holiday window downtown, muscled a 41st Ave Safeway food drive, landed the cover for the Thanksgiving edition of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, 102.5 KDON was the leading media sponsor, Santa Cruz Junior Derby Girls raised food, birthday party food drives were going down, Grind Out Hunger Skateboards were selling like hotcakes, 831 magazine did a cover story on Grind Out Hunger….I could go on and on with the exposure and support for Grind Out Hunger in 2009. But when it comes right down to it, THE KIDS ARE THE ONES WHO PULLED THROUGH AND MADE THIS HAPPEN and I am proud to say for the 2009-2010 Grind Out Hunger Campaign together we raised 116,853 pounds not only smashing the goal of 100,000 pounds but almost doubling 2008-2009′s 60,000 pounds….never underestimate the YOUTH!

Below are the winners of the 2009-2010 Grind Out Hunger food drive, congratulations to all! I am so humbled at the support and love that Grind Out Hunger has received….we will see you at the March 10th awards dinner.

A 'Grind Out Hunger' skate deck from Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop on 41st Avenue can help out the needy while at the same time giving the teen in your life a treasured present (Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel)

A 'Grind Out Hunger' skate deck from Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop on 41st Avenue can help out the needy while at the same time giving the teen in your life a treasured present (Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel)

Empire Academy winning high school $600 prize and 3-Pete

Empire Academy winning high school $600 prize and 3-Pete raising 8530lbs

Aptos Jr. High middle school winner $300 prize raised 7800lbs

Aptos Jr. High middle school winner $300 prize raised 7800lbs

Gateway Elementary School $300 prize

Gateway Elementary School $300 prize

Special thanks to: Bly Morales, Willy McRea, Lisa Allyn, Sheree Storm, Kate Chabrek, Jimbo Phillips(provided art for skateboard deck and campaign),  Sam Segovia, Showbiz, The Morning Madhouse, 102.5 KDON, Greg Archer, The Good Times, SoWat TV, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, KION 46, 831 Magazine, Ryan Zen Lama, All the schools that had us out to talk, Safeway on 41st Ave, Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop, Zane Keith, Cole Kerby, Mia Morales, Omar Morales, Xavier Morales, Mark Conley, Romain Fonsegrives, Shmuel Thaler, Santa Cruz Innovation and Design, Maya Delano, Lars Maptstead, Paul Gallagher, Surf Club at Berkley, people that donated money though Facebook,  volunteers that helped out anytime we asked, The Santa Cruz County Boy Scouts, Brian Russ, Classic Cleaners, Coats For Kids, Dusty Nelson (DVD master!), iSpot Compassion,  Second Harvest Food Bank and of course my wife Taniya and family for  supporting me with everything needed to make all of these things happen….

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!!!!

2010-2011 here we come…

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Aptos Jr. High presents HUGE check to Grind Out Hunger

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Interesting story here, on my rounds this season I stopped in a school by the name of Aptos Jr. High…now I like to consider myself a pretty entertaining speaker and can work any crowd. In the case of AJH it felt like I bombed when I walked out of there. Fast forward a month,  I am standing in the Aptos Safeway when two AJH 8th grade girls approach me as Mr. Grind Out Hunger and begin to tell me how they are raising a ton of food and money and they are totally going to crush the 7th graders….I didn’t know if they were kidding or if they were serious as they were so full of energy I figured they were just having fun with me…wellllll was I wrong. 3 days ago I get a call from Bly at the Second Harvest Food Bank with the news…”Hey Aptos Jr High wants to do a check presentation on Wednesday morning and needs you there”…of course I oblige as we had already done a few of these presentations over the last few weeks.  Bly continues “Oh yeah by the way,  Aptos Jr. High’s check is for $2166 and they filled over 10 barrels of food….” I quickly crunched the numbers ($1 = 3lbs etc) and realized they had raised over 7,800lbs of food and almost $19,000 worth of purchase power!!!! I ran back to look and sure enough last years numbers “0″…these kids had gone from “0″ to 7,800lbs in one year….AMAZING  There was a contest between 7th and 8th grade and I heard that the 7th graders lost by $21…now they have to sit on the floor during assembly and the 8th graders get the bleachers…but everyone gets an Ice Cream party…count me in! Aptos Jr. High great job and keep your heads up!

Aptos Jr. High presents check to Grind Out Hunger

Aptos Jr. High presents check to Grind Out Hunger

Aptos Jr. High makes it rain for Grind Out Hunger

Aptos Jr. High makes it rain for Grind Out Hunger

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Grind Out Hunger week long whirlwind tour of schools

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Grind Out Hunger has been on a tear since the Holiday Kickoff Luncheon reaching out to schools that have not participated in the Holiday Food Drives in years past. First Stop was Aptos Jr. High where the 7th and 8th graders were in a challenge to see who could raise the most pounds per student with the losers sitting on the ground during assembly.  AJH had some great ideas for raising food, lets see how they do this year.

Aptos Jr. High School

Aptos Jr. High School

Next stop on the tour was VHM Christian School another 1st timer for the Grind Out Hunger challenge.  We rolled in and immediately felt welcomed while the morning music was being played, the place had a nice sense of calm with all of the kids participating in the songs. This school seemed really motivated to crush some numbers for The Holiday Food Drive…

VHM Christian School

VHM Christian School

Santa Cruz High School…Grind Out Hunger is so excited to finally get in and speak to the ASB about The Holiday Food Drive. Another 1st time player in the Grind Out Hunger game, after speaking to these kids they get it…with over 1100 kids their target is already 10lbs a student…considering Santa Cruz High School hadn’t done a food drive in a while that would be a significant increase. GO CARDINALS!

Santa Cruz High School

Santa Cruz High School

Santa Cruz High School

Santa Cruz High School

End of the line for the week was Bradley Elementary School in Corralitos. This stop had some special ties to our speech, Bly Morales of Second Harvest Food Bank has kids attending this school.  Once again, this school had not participated in a Holiday Food Drive (are you seeing a pattern here?) in previous years and our job was to inform them of the challenge we were issuing. I spoke to the 4th thru 6th and man…out of all the schools we stopped this week these guys were on fire! The 6th grade class had a rice and beans challenge in a stated “friendly” competition…but based on what I saw and heard it was definitely ON for competition. I then asked where the 4th and 5th graders were and now we have multiple grades going at it to see who can raise the most pounds of food per student.

Bradley Elementary School

Bradley Elementary School

It is so inspirational to see the kids embrace the Grind Out Hunger challenge for 2009-2010 across the county. With more people than ever needing assistance this year I am confident my kids can hit the 100,000 pound mark for Grind Out Hunger…..one week down 2 more to go. Who is going to win the title this year???

NEWSFLASH all schools can use this site Donate Cash to Grind Out Hunger and have it count towards your totals!!!

http://thefoodbank.givezooks.com/campaigns/grind-out-hunger

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