CULLMAN, Ala. – The obvious winners of last week’s Citizens Bank and Trust (CBT) cereal drive for Cullman Caring for Kids are the children of Cullman County’s families in need, but the drive was carried out as a contest between local elementary schools and classes, which produced winners of its own who will receive a pizza party to celebrate their accomplishments. After the contest ended last Friday, volunteers counted up the totals and announced the top three donating classes, judged on a ratio of number of boxes donated to number of students in the class.
- Fairview – Hope Vaughn’s class with 204 boxes and 24 students
- Holly Pond – Katie Barksdale’s class with 130 boxes and 19 students
- Welti – Samantha Barbee’s first-grade class with 45 boxes and 17 students
Between donations picked up by Cullman Caring for Kids and those picked up Friday by bank staff, more than 900 boxes were donated.
CBT’s Josh Campbell, who coordinated the drive, told The Tribune, “We’re very proud of the kids and the schools and how they participated, especially in light of everything else that’s going on. It’s easy to give in good times; it’s not so easy to have a giving heart when everybody’s running around crazy over all the events that’s taking place. But we had a really good turnout. It wasn’t a record year, but given the situation that our country’s in right now, we’re very proud of our community, and especially the kids.
“With this two- or three-week break coming up, there’s even more of a need now for the kids that depend on Cullman Caring for Kids, and this drive’s really going to help Cullman Caring for Kids meet those needs as they continue to grow every year. We’re very proud to have sponsored it and very proud of the turnout by kids and schools that participated in it, and we pray blessings on all the families in our community, and remind everybody that, despite whatever mayhem’s going on, God’s still God and He’s got us in his hands.”
Cullman Caring for Kids Executive Director Javon Daniel said, “I think the fact that these students in all the elementary schools that did such a great, great job… we thank and just really appreciate Citizens Bank and Trust for sponsoring it and taking care of all the logistics part of it. We picked up- I know it was over 800 boxes last Friday, and what Josh and their folks picked up Friday.
“We are so excited, because that’s going to give us cereal in the bags to go out to the kids- especially important at this point in time with the circumstances we’ve got going on with the coronavirus. That’ll be a lot of kids that have something to eat for breakfast, and it’s because all of the kids in this community and these elementary schools that collected cereal for other kids.
“What can you say about that? That is absolutely, totally precious.”
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