John Newell, Peyton Staub, Kolgrim Wille, Laine Buonviri, Bella Grundy and Kennedy Walls from the marketing class, pack Beach Bags for October Photo used with permission from Elizabeth Shur-Badack.

For $170, a club or group can sponsor beach bags for a week.

“The need is great this year because food costs have gone up so much. Our costs have doubled in terms of meeting the need. We are grateful to everyone who has donated,” said beach bags sponsor Elizabeth Schur-Badach.

This school year, the goal of the AVID class is to spread the word about beach bags. Weekly updates on the program can be found on the Instagram pages @ol_beachbags and @olhs_avid.

“When students make donations, many use the link provided when they pay their club dues,” said Schur-Badach. “That’s something new for this year, and it has worked out well.”

Another goal of the AVID class is to create a School Cash Online link to make it easier for individuals to donate outside of clubs.

“It’s a great way for clubs to do something together; packing together is fun. If you have a club or a group, it’s something outside of your normal community-building activities,” said Schur-Badach. 

After clubs pay the $170 fee to sponsor beach bags, the clubs pack bags during One Lunch with the help of the AVID classroom.

“I’ve packed so many beach bags with so many different clubs and teams and they’ve always asked me ‘Why do you do this?’” said senior Julianna Lloyd. “I always tell them how fulfilling it is knowing how impactful [beach bags] are in our community.”

When the AVID class took over the beach bags program last year, Julianna was one of the first students to reach out to clubs about sponsoring the program.

“Last year, I remember [Julianna] saying, ‘This is our beach bags program; it’s the school’s service project,’” said Schur-Badack. “That’s something we’re trying to make sure there’s a clear feeling; this is everybody’s program.”