Forest Park students work together for the TV6 Canathon

Crystal Falls, Mich. (WLUC) - Forest Park’s K-12 Principal Jackie Giuliani says this year, the students wanted to try a new approach for the TV6 Canathon.

In past years, grades at Forest Park Schools would compete against each other to gather donations. Jackie Giuliani says this time they’ll work together.

“This year they wanted to try something different to see if we could maybe get more donations,” said Giuliani. “They thought by making something really visible that would maybe get the student’s excited to contribute to and add to and make it a challenge school wide.”

It’s called “Fill the Wall.” Students donate nonperishable food to cover the entire wall outside the school’s main office. The student council and staff then stack the donations to maximize wall coverage.

Giuliani says the wall has made plenty of progress.

“We had originally thought we would go up, but we noticed that became dangerous so instead we’re going wide,” said Giuliani. “And I know the students are making it double so I know if we really spread it out, we would be close to filling this wall and that’s pretty amazing.”

Giuliani says the school used social media to encourage the whole community to donate.

“We put it out on our Facebook page and on our website to kind of try to spread the word, and I know many people have shared that as well,” she said. “So, I think it’s getting out there that this is a great place to drop off items that they want to.”

Community members can help make the wall bigger by dropping off donations at the main office.

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