BLUE SPRINGS, MO — KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Share your story idea with Claire.
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Community Unity Week is a long-standing tradition in the Blue Springs School District — and this year, it filled the shelves of the Community Services League with a record-breaking donation.
All Blue Springs schools spent a week in September collecting canned goods, non-perishable food items, hygiene products and money for the Blue Springs Community Services League. Those items help CSL stock the shelves throughout the winter.
In all, 39,054 items were donated to CSL at a time when the organization is seeing high demand.
Richard Betts, Chief Development Officer for the Community Services League, said the organization normally serves around 20,000 families. That number has increased to 26,000 this year, with no dip in needs.
"It's huge. You know, CSL. Every day we see somebody that has to make the choice between groceries or rent, and this helps them with the food, but it also helps them pay the rent. So this is a massive way we can make a difference," Betts said.
This year, the top schools were Voy Spears Jr. Elementary, Delta Woods Middle School and Blue Springs South High School.
For Kory Lower, a teacher at Blue Springs South High School, the week is about more than a food drive.
"To me, weeks like Community Unity Week are those moments that hopefully they remember that like there's things outside our four walls," Lower said.
BSSHS Student Senate President Lea Gage, a senior, learned a lot from being hands-on in the process — from organizing the drive to volunteering.
"Knowing that we're helping them really made me feel good and proud of the people around me who are also helping and our community," Gage said.
Each school will have yard signs celebrating the effort.
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