Fort Hays State University student organization Kappa Delta Pi is holding its inaugural Thanksgiving Food Drive to help out some of the students’ families at Washington Elementary School in Hays.
Diane Miller, Geneseo senior and president of Kappa Delta Pi, is leading the food drive. She has been part of Kappa Delta Pi for two years, while holding the president’s position for the last year.
“Kappa Delta Pi is an international honor society. We strive to create excellent in future educators,” Miller said.
Thanksgiving, being the first major holiday of the holiday season, attracts a lot of donations, especially since the weather starts to get cold typically in November. FHSU’s Kappa Delta Pi chapter decided to get in on the action for the first time this year and join its sister organizations.
“This is our first year doing it here on campus,” Miller said, “Other schools across the United States that have Kappa Delta Pi have been doing this for the last 30 years.”
Kappa Delta Pi is asking that people donate nonperishable Thanksgiving food items, such as canned meats, vegetables, fruits, pasta, and cranberry sauce.
However, what is Thanksgiving without a turkey?
“We are planning to purchase turkeys the morning that we give out the baskets. That way they are still frozen. But the organization (is) going to buy the turkeys,” Miller said.
The turkeys will be able to stay frozen on their journey to someone’s dinner table, because the food is not going far.
“It is actually being given out to Washington Elementary here in Hays. They’re a low Supplemental Educational Services school. We do our corrections reading internship there, so Dr. (Mirta) Martin, our president here on campus, is going to go and read a story in both Spanish and English,” Miller said, “Then we are going to have a drawing. We will draw different students’ names and give those families a basket of food.”
“We’ve gotten to know the families at Washington Elementary pretty well over the couple of internships that we’ve done there. We have really liked working with them, and we thought this would be a great way to give back to them for letting us borrow their students when we read to them,” Miller said.
Coordinating the efforts, along with Miller, are Katharine Sexson, Garden City senior and vice president, Michelle Miller, Ellinwood senior and treasurer, and the rest of the Kappa Delta Pi organization, which has about 25 members. Valerie Zelenka, adviser of Kappa Delta Pi, will be helping with the food drive as well, while Martin will also help distribute the food after doing her reading at Washington.
Kappa Delta Pi has several boxes on the second floor of Rarick Hall, where they are accepting donations. The organization does not have a certain goal it is trying to meet, but just wants as much food as possible to be donated, according to Miller. The members will then fill baskets with assortments of food that will be given to the students and their families.
More information about Kappa Delta Pi is available at ( https://tigerlink.fhsu.edu/organization/kdp-aae ) on Tigerlink.