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“It seems that our Bellwood-Antis community always rises to the occasion to do good, and I feel truly blessed to be a part of it,” said high school teach Mrs. Allison Stinson.

What Mrs. Stinson was referring to was the Bellwood-Antis Fellowship of Christian Athletes, who concluded yet another successful cereal drive last week.  The group exceeded 2016 totals by more than 400 boxes.

FCA advisor Mr. Nick Lovrich is happy with the effort the three schools put into the event.

“I am very proud of the effort our students and staff made for this cereal drive.  We had a huge improvement in the high school from previous years and that is due to the student leaders we have,” said Mr. Lovrich.

Overall, 1,242 boxes of cereal were donated.  The high school led the way with 669 boxes, the elementary school was second with 451 boxes, and the middle school contributed 122 boxes.

The food is donated to the St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry in Altoona.

” The Bellwood cereal drives help the Pantry in feeding the increasing number of clients and their families; particularly by providing an upgrade in the quality of the products, and to what we could afford to purchase,” said St. Vincent DePaul Director Mr. Donald Belsey.

FCA President and senior Stephanie Mills is very happy with the numbers of boxes donated.

“Being able to help people at all is a success, but the fact that we were able to get that many boxes is even better,” said Stephanie.

The great part about the cereal drive is that it is a time where students and staff can truly work together.

“Our staff is second to none when it comes to contributing for the good of our community. We even had some teachers matching the amount of cereal boxes their homeroom students donated.  I always say how special a place that Bellwood-Antis is, and this just goes to prove that,” said Mr. Lovrich.

This could be seen in Mrs. Stinson’s homeroom, as together she and her students donated 136 boxes of cereal.

“As an added incentive, I told my homeroom that I would match whatever they brought in.  I believe that this helped them to see the impact we could truly make as a group,” said Mrs. Stinson.

One of Mrs. Stinson’s students, junior Max DeArmitt, donated 50 boxes of cereal.

“There’s people out there that are less fortunate than us and they needed our help,” said Max.

B-A senior Sophie Damiano was putting pressure on everyone to donate, including Max.

“In FCA we talk about putting positive peer pressure on our friends and I think we saw that in the high school with our cereal drive.  We even had Sophie Damiano talking up our cereal drive at CTC and bringing her cereal from students who don’t even go to Bellwood.  That says a lot about the type of students we have here at BA,” said Mr. Lovrich.

“It made it more like a competition and made it fun.  Once a few kids said they’d bring some in, others eventually did too.  It’s such an easy way to help others out,” said Sophie.

For those that donated, Mrs. Stinson said you should know that you made a difference in the community.

“Our entire school community should know they truly made a positive impact in the lives of others,” said Mrs. Stinson.

“The cereal helps all client categories from single families, thru families with kids, thru the elderly by providing a change and upgrade in the value of what they consume,” said Mr. Belsey, “Bellwood Blue Devils make our job easier because they time to care about their fellow human beings.”

Thank you to everyone that donated cereal, and be ready to donate even more as a school next year.