The Royal Oak High School Diversity club, advised by teachers, Brittney Laurent and Fiona King, hosted a canned food drive for all 6th hour classes. The canned food drive is an event that has become annual for the Diversity club and allows students to understand the socio-economic diversity within the Royal Oak community.
The ROHS Diversity club seeks to create a more inclusive community for Royal Oak and ROHS as a whole.
¨It’s a club that highlights the cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity that is present in Royal Oak. We celebrate the different communities that make up our one large Royal Oak family¨ said co-advisor of Diversity club, Fiona King.
Diversity club hosts other events from discussions of awareness and cultural celebrations to watching movies that exhibit diversity around the world. The events are hosted at ROHS and help to connect students from different cultural, socio-economic, and other backgrounds.
The ROHS Diversity club spread information about the canned food drive before and during the weeks of December 1st, 2023 through December 15th, 2023. They posted on their instagram page @rohsdiversity a flier promoting the event on November 29th, 2023.
¨Me and some other officers digitally made posters that we hung up, as well as putting a slide in the LC slideshow, and emailing all teachers with information.¨ said student officer of Diversity club, Brooke Maurer.
The canned food collected in the drive was donated to the food bank Gleaners.
¨We donated to them because they also offer a volunteering opportunity as well to where the students can help package the goods and actually hand deliver them. See just how many donations are made to that food back so that then they can actually see the volume of what is needed.¨ said co-advisor of Diversity club, Brittney Laurent.
The Diversity club started the canned food drive to raise awareness of how many people are food insecure in Royal Oak and the Metro Detroit area. The canned food drive is an important event every year to show the community that the students at ROHS see the people struggling and want to make a difference.
Brittney Laurent´s 6th hour won the Ray´s Ice Cream party for being the 6th hour that raised the most canned food from December 1st to December 15th. The students earned their party with almost double the amount of points that the 2nd place 6th hour had.
¨She had 638 points and second place, Ms. Clelandhost had 300 something¨ said Chloe Jarret, the President of Diversity club.
Any ROHS student can become involved in the Diversity club, they meet almost every Thursday. The ROHS Diversity club helps the Royal Oak community and the best way to support them is to go to their meetings and hear how you can get involved in their upcoming events.