Schools collect $6,000 for Red Cross
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on April 1, 2005 1:47 PM
Brogden Primary School, Eastern Wayne Middle School and Charles B. Aycock High School won the annual jug-decorating contest sponsored by the American Red Cross. The competition is part of the Wayne County chapter's annual Pennies-For-A-Purpose fund-raising drive.
The fund-raiser was part of the chapter's month-long Heroes Campaign, which ended Thursday.
Jugs placed at each school in the county were used to collect pennies. Three schools -- Brogden Primary, Greenwood Middle and Eastern Wayne High -- raised more than $1,000 each. Schools around the county raised a total of a little more than $6,000.
Winners in the jug decoration contest were selected at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
Brogden's jug was covered with a multitude of red, white and blue chain links, with the word "heroes" down one side.
Eastern Wayne's jug had a fish head on one side and the tail on the other with the jug being the body. It contained brightly colored circles.
Aycock's jug was painted red, white and blue with superheroes such as Superman, the Incredible Hulk and Spider-man glued onto the sides and top.
There were 28 water jugs this year, which is the second year of the competition, said Chuck Waller, local Red Cross director.
Each winning school will receive $100 in art supplies.
"We were really excited with the turnout of the schools again this year," said Waller. "They did a wonderful job of decorating the bottles and helping the Red Cross.
"The children worked awfully hard on these jugs," Waller said. "I can only imagine how many hours went into making some of them."
"My first hope is that is was fun for the children," he said. "My second hope is that they understand the significance of what they're collecting the money for. It goes back into the community so that when somebody in their school has his house burn down, we can help; when somebody in their school needs blood, we can help."
Some of the jugs will now be placed at locations around the county for people to donate their pennies.
Pennies-For-A-Purpose was the brainchild of Max Rich at Culligan Water. Culligan donates the jugs to the schools each year.