A two week school wide donation drive netted $1,300 for the Samaritan Inn in McKinney with each 2B class raising money.

“This is the first time that I’ve actually been able to do something for the community on Christmas,” senior Vivek Sundararaman said. “I thought is something that it’s really important because it’s good to give back. And I think we kind of take for granted. And we might not always consider people the people who might not be under the best conditions and things can happen with people very quickly and their lives can turn around. It’s not something they anticipated.”

The donation drive allows the school to spread holiday cheer to those in need.

“I think it’s wonderful,” counselor Staci Stokes said. “The Samaritan Inn is going to be so excited to receive the donation from Liberty High School, every little bit helps and what we’re donating is going to go towards supplies and all sorts of things for those families in need over at the Samaritan Inn. And I think it’s gonna be great.””

The top three donating classes win a pizza party with the broadcast journalism class of Brian Higgins leading the way over the classes of geography teacher Jennifer Nelken and English teacher Michelle Porter.

A pizza party provided a nice incentive for teachers to encourage students to donate, but the drive was about helping those in need.

“I really tried to make my students understand how people are benefited by the services provided by the Samaritan Inn,” Higgins said. “The people that rely on these services don’t choose to be in the position they are. Sometimes it’s just a run of unfortunate circumstances that led them to needing help and I encouraged my class to help if they could and they came through in a big way as we raised more than $300.”

Nelken took a similar approach, providing students with information about the cause, in hope of increasing donations.

“We looked at the video first and actually I volunteered at the Samaritan Inn before in the past,” Nelken said. “So I knew it was for a good cause and I just explained to them what homelessness looks like. It’s not always just someone on the side of the road or living under a bridge or something like that; there’s different types of homelessness. And so I think maybe that helps a little bit.”

The holiday season can be a struggle for some people and Sundararaman hopes his $50 donation can help make a difference. “I think just little acts like this can really go a long way in helping people out and get them back on their feet,” he said. “And hopefully our donations will go a long way.”