In past years, the iconic HOCO food drive kicked off spirit week.This year, the food pantry and student council requested hygiene products and gift cards to make up for the other needs of low-income families. 

Angela Duensing, one of the student council sponsors, spoke about the surplus of food, but needs for other products. 

 “The pantry asked us to do the gift card drive and hygiene products because that’s what they seem to be low on,” said Duensing. 

The student body was asked to bring in items such as toothbrushes, body wash, feminine products and gift cards. Just like the food drive, students were asked to drop off their hygiene products at their respective locations per grade. The drive ran from Sept. 26 through Sept. 30. 

The dramatic change in drive contributions came with some confusion and conflict among the student body.

These issues were mainly present with the junior representatives, who offered to gather money to buy combs in bulk for extra spirit points. Junior class officer, Elise McCann spoke on the changes.

 “We [the juniors] all decided we were going to buy combs for the drive. So we all pitched in a little bit of money to be able to purchase 800,” said McCann. 

The original hygiene drive regulations stated nothing on purchasing in bulk, until on Sept. 21, when Duensing sent out an email to the entire student body. The message advised against bulk purchases. Despite this, the juniors continued to follow their own rules.

“It was a new rule, but we still did it anyway, and passed out combs to the juniors to turn in,” said McCann.

Jammir Aloya, student council treasurer and head of the hygiene drive committee also commented on the change of events.

“Originally 300 combs should have counted for 30 items [spirit points]. I think the rules were too flexible and too up to interpretation that it would depend on the person counting the combs, the teachers,” said Aloya. 

But for the juniors, this rule ultimately did not protect them. After bringing in about 600 total combs, the juniors only gained 10 more spirit points. 

“This year we had a group, and no offense to them, of course, who brought some combs. The combs were like baby combs so they weren’t gonna be usable for students here in the school. So we didn’t count them,” said Duensing. 

The junior class ended the spirit week hygiene drive in second place with 506 points. Though the spirit week drive is competitive, it is also for a charitable cause. The overall donations came out to be 549 hygiene items and $890 in gift cards.