The school’s fundraiser for the Samaritan Inn has ended and the money raised by students will be donated despite not raising enough to purchase the designated goal of a lawnmower. In comparison to last year’s fundraiser for the Samaritan Inn, counselor Ryan Kiefer said that the amounts raised aren’t easily comparable.

“Last year was set up a little different, so [the total] was an estimate,” Kiefer said. “We estimated around six thousand dollars in donations, but a lot of that was just the value we estimated for the totes in total. As far as actual money raised, we’ve raised more. We don’t have a final figure yet, since money is still coming in, but we’re close to two thousand in cash and checks.”

Kiefer said a shortage of cash donations towards the $5,000 goal could be a result of a couple of factors.

“There was a lot of other things going on, like the toy drive and the food drive, and it’s a little harder to just ask for cash, since the organization’s needs are different,” Kiefer said. “With the competing [fundraisers] and the nature of what we were asking for, it’s just a lot easier for someone to bring in paper towels or something like that than it is to bring straight up cash.”

Another factor that may have contributed to not raising enough money may have been how informed students were. Sophomore Dionn Lacey said she felt like she wasn’t well informed about opportunities the school provides to be charitable.

“I didn’t even know about this [fundraiser],” Lacey said. “We should have more fliers around the school talking about it.”

While some students weren’t aware of the fundraiser at all, others were able to contribute to the cause. Fred Kaiser’s 2B economic class raised the most money for the lawnmower.

“They did a good job,” Kaiser said. “There’s some good kids in this class that took care of business and I have some compassionate kids in that class.”