It’s that time of the year. We rid our pockets of the jingling coins that make us feel like cats with bells on our collars and the phrase “keep the change” is foreign to us. Of course, that could just be me.

The Loose Change Assembly on Jan. 25 gave ASB member and senior Lucas Brewer a chance to tell a heartwarming tale about his family’s journey in fostering a child. This speech opened the curtains for ASB to announce that the funds raised from this year’s Loose Change Drive would go towards Angels Foster Family Network in support of the thousands of children that have turned to foster care to escape unfortunate family situations.

“It has a really large impact because a lot of these organizations don’t have a lot of donors or don’t have a lot of funds and so when our school is really able to get behind it—I believe last year we raised about four or five thousand dollars and those donations are really helpful for the organizations because it’s a large sum of money that they can use,” ASB member, junior Charles Larkin said.

He comments on the importance of the school’s contribution to the cause. “I think as students [we] are willing to give. We can always use the money and help those organizations in need,” Larkin said. “The students have to deeply care about the cause that we’re donating to and if they’re really impacted by it, then they’ll be more encouraged to donate, but we try our best to make it fun and exciting for all students.”

Larkin added that the goal is “just to raise as much money as we can,” but they would like to raise six or seven thousand dollars.

And yes, there are students at our school that have been impacted by fostering, including Brewer and ASB Treasurer, junior Kiara Terrell. “Basically we remind everyone that this isn’t something that we do just because we have to, it’s something that we do because we want to. We’re helping a really good cause. This year it’s foster care, which I’ve actually gone through. We’ve gotten three little foster kids through it,” Terrell said.

Another member of ASB, freshman Reagan Smith, further explains why the cause is so important. “As a school, we can know that we helped them, so it definitely is a good cause especially since they are helping a lot of kids … I think that students do get excited about this especially because we do it every year and so it’s cool to see everybody wants to win because there’s always a prize and especially when teachers get involved in it and they can really pump it up, so it’s really like a whole school effort,” Smith said.

“I think the more students we can get involved,” Larkin said, “the better experience … they’ll have from high school.” And who doesn’t want to have a better high school experience?