By Tanner D. Nypen ’15
THE ROUNDUP

Each year around the start of November until just before Thanksgiving break, the Office of Faith and Justice organizes the Brophy Turkey Drive.

During each sixth period during that time period, students and teachers donate money to benefit various charities and organizations that have some association with Brophy, whether through donations such as this or immersion trip programs.

This year Brophy students raised $13,928 for numerous charities including organizations such as The Kino Border Initiative, Fundhamer, Homeward bound and Saint Vincent De Paul.

“It was a pretty impressive showing, especially since the last couple days we were hovering around $11,000,” said Principal of Ministry Mr. Paul Fisko. “I had asked the student body, hey let’s get to 12 (thousand), well we got to 13 (thousand) then with the money that came in late from groups and classes we almost got $14,000.”

Last year the student body reached a total of around $18,000.

“Depending on the year, some things can be skewed, for example there was a Friday night lights during the drive (last year), where we collected money from our students and Xavier students,” Mr. Fisko said.

This year, Mrs. Kim Baldwin’s sixth period class raised the most, $959.  Her class didn’t just focus on giving money, but reflecting on the purpose behind donating and the organizations that need it.

“Each day when Mr. (Ryan) Hubbell and would talk about a particular organization, once he got off the PA we’d pass the envelope around but as it was going around we’d have a conversation about that organization,” Mrs. Baldwin said. “We talked about their experiences with that particular organization that was going to benefit from the money, and I think that helped them get more excited about it.”

Mrs. Baldwin’s class earned a pizza party lunch as a prize but decided instead to donate the pizza to Andre House.

“They were actually really sweet, they decided that if they won they didn’t want the pizza party, they wanted to donate it to Andre House,” Mrs. Baldwin said. “They even asked if we could go as a class and serve lunch or dinner at Andre House.”