Blacksburg High School DECA members would like to thank the community and BHS students for their support in donating food and funds to the Home for the Holidays project.
This year, BHS’s DECA, a high school program designed to foster leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management, filled approximately 215 donation bags and raised nearly $4,400 from the Blacksburg community.
The annual winter event supplies enough food for 200 elementary and middle school kids who receive free or reduced lunch at school, but who don’t get those lunches during the holiday break.
BHS DECA performs this service project in memory of Ayesha Wintersdorff, a BHS DECA officer and student who was tragically lost as a result of a car accident in 2008.
This is a bittersweet and personal project for BHS DECA Advisor Kim Radford who knew Winersdorff.
The BHS DECA’s H4H project began in 2007 and Ayesha was an active member. She had been elected to take the leadership role in the coming year when she died.
“Ayesha loved what H4H stood for and was a true service-led young woman,” said. “When she died in her accident in June, 2008, we asked her family if we could honor her memory by dedicating our annual project to her.It is an important project to me as I loved Ayesha dearly. She was a wonderful young woman with a very bright future. I think she would be very happy to know we do this to honor her each year.”
BHS DECA members volunteered time working food drives, collecting monetary donations, and filling grocery bags.
Thanks to the generosity of the community, said Radford, each eligible child received one grocery bag with the following items: box of instant oatmeal, a jar of applesauce, a jar of peanut butter, a can of soup, a box of macaroni and cheese, a bag of uncooked rice box of granola bars, a jar of jelly, a can of vegetables, a can of baked beans, and a package of ramen noodles.
This year’s service project was led by BHS DECA Vice President of Leadership Caleb Townsend and President Charlsie Key.
BHS DECA President, Charlsie Key. a senior this year, has been involved with Home for the Holidays all four of her high school years.
“Being able to support those in need in our community is a rewarding experience and something I would not trade the opportunity to do,” she said in an email.
“There is definitely a lot of work that goes into the project on BHS DECA’s side, but it is all worth it to know we are making such a large impact on those in need in Blacksburg.”
Key attributes the events success to the support of the community and is thankful to everyone who donated to the cause.
“Home for the Holidays is definitely one of the most important and rewarding projects I have been able to be a part of,” she said.
Vice President of Leadership Caleb Townsend, a junior who is thinking of studying behavioral neuroscience and pursue a career in psychiatry after high school, College and medical school.
In his first year as a DECA Officer he says H4H has been a “powerful” and “perfect” experience.
“I have known many people who struggled financially and didn’t have the resources to create a large amount of prosperity. In a way, I feel like I am serving those people every time I raise money for this project and it has been an extremely humbling experience as I get to see the powerful effects of service.”
Coordinator Kim Radford, who is also a marketing teacher and the BHS Work-Based Learning Coordinator, remembers when she was in high school, DECA originally stood for “Distributive Education Clubs of America” and most members were in a co-op learning experience in retail.
“We really don’t refer to that anymore because the opportunities for DECA members are so much larger now than retail,” she said.
Leadership skills are now also a focus of DECA, something Townsend recognizes, seeing this year’s H4H project as an exercise in servant leadership.
“I believe service, and being a servant, is the definition of leadership. I have been forced to examine the nature of leadership: does being a leader mean that I am served or does it mean that I serve others? Because of this project, it has become clear that it means that I must serve others.”
