In theory, school charity drives are a very effective way for important causes to get the exposure and resources they need. Usually, they work very well, but recently students have paid little to no respect to these drives.

An example of this disrespect is students ignoring the drives and vandalizing the boxes which were put out in hopes of student donations. Although most students know to be kind and respectful to these charitable collections around campus, some people have found humor in the destruction or defacing of these charities.

Senior Brody Crouch said, “There have definitely been some mishaps [recently] with students thinking that it is funny to kick around or harm drives, and [they do this because] they think that they can get away with it.”

When asked if she had ever donated to 1 of Campo’s charity boxes, sophomore Carrie Zhang said, “No, I haven’t because I usually just end up forgetting about them because I feel like nobody really talks about them.”

Zhang, among many other students, hasn’t been able to donate to these important causes because of the lack of promotion these drives receive. Campolindo students typically have the resources suitable for donation, but because there is no talk of them, they usually go unnoticed. “I have a lot of things I would like to donate, but I feel like I never know when drives are happening,” Zhang said.

Along with the lack of donations that these drives receive, they also get disrespected in more physical ways. Sophomore Avery Appleton said, “At lunch I see people kicking around the boxes for [the coat] drive and I heard that people steal from them as well.”

Upon blatant, noticeable disrespect, are these drives really effective at assisting the causes they originally set out to help?

Zhang said, “I do think that they help, but just not very much; I know there are a few people who do participate, but I do not think that [there are] enough to make a measurable change.”