Since Christmas is coming up soon, Benet Academy has done a Christmas Drive every year the week before Christmas break. Now, what is the Christmas Drive? It is a week dedicated to donating money from different events throughout the week. Some examples of what goes on during the Christmas Drive is a shop with many gifts to give to one’s family and friends. There are also many games during the week, an auction, dollar wars, slop days, and even winning homework passes. Each year, Student Government designs a sweatshirt for everyone in the school to wear during the whole week. Some teachers do their versions of the Christmas Drive, and some raise a certain amount of money so the students can do something fun on the last day before break. When the whole week is done, the school gets together for an assembly to see how much money was raised for charity. It is always cool to see how much the whole school raises for a good cause. 

However, Christmas Drive is so far away, so why are some students hearing about money being raised for Christmas Drive beginning now? Vice President of Student Government Melanie Takahashi explained that Student Government has been able to start raising money so early because of more opportunities like the events like the Nightmare on Maple Street. She said, “Our goal every year is to try and beat last year’s number, so having an event like Nightmare on Maple Street was a great way to raise some money and get a good head start to the two-week long event.” Having more opportunities to raise money for charity is helping Benet Academy raise more than last year by helping people in need. Smaller events help build a great cause by donating more money to charity. It is also to help all the students to come together and help one another to make our goal bigger than before. Lastly, having more events and opportunities leading up to the Christmas Drive is also a way to get everyone involved in helping people in need which is the true meaning of Christmas. 

Starting to raise money for the Christmas Drive so early is a better way for us to reach and go beyond the charity goal. It is also a way to have everyone in the school have fun and help others in need while doing these games throughout the week. Having more events with more “normal” years this year allows the Student Government to take advantage of those and have new ways to raise more money for charity this year. The more events Student Government makes better because these events will add to the total we make during the weeks of Christmas Drive and will increase the amount of money we make. Starting Christmas Drive this early in the year is an excellent way to help and add more money by helping people in need.