Besides organizing the Homecoming, Sadie’s, and Sweetheart’s dances at Edina High School, Student Council offers students around the school the opportunity to give back to their communities.

StudCo currently has 26 members: eight freshmen, six sophomores, eight juniors, and nine seniors. Out of the nine seniors, four have executive roles which include President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The school year is split into different “seasons” for those involved in StudCo, as most of their projects revolve around when the dances and pep fests are. Mixed in with those long hours of writing pep fest scripts and hanging decorations are service projects that help EHS give back to their community.

Since the beginning of the school year, StudCo has organized a school-wide blood drive, made sandwiches through Operation Sandwich, helped sell shirts for the Tackle Cancer Foundation, and participated in Feed My Starving Children.

This past Sadie’s season, a group of five StudCo members helped organize a toy drive for children in need over the holiday season. The group included senior Meredith Benz, juniors Amelie Black and Charlie Omodt, sophomore Lizzy Van Ert, and freshmen Louisa Darr. StudCo helped collect the toys that would then be dropped off at a local bank and donated to Toys For Tots, a well known organization run by the United States Marine Corps. According to their website, Toy for Tots in the Twin Cities was able to donate 238,141 toys to 183,751 children in need during the 2017 holiday season. Besides collecting toys, StudCo members hoped to get students at EHS in the holiday spirit of giving through their toy drive. “I think the most important part is realizing that some families don’t have the opportunity to give their children gifts during the holiday season,” Omodt said.

The drive officially started on Nov. 25 and went through Dec. 14. StudCo members placed collection boxes in the cafeteria, hoping to reach their goal of 300 toys. While they’ve done plenty of other drives in the past, including the book drive and hygiene drive last year, StudCo hasn’t done a toy drive in nearly eight years. This could have been why the group was surprised and disappointed when they realized they had only collected 30 donations in the first week, burdening them with a hefty amount of 270 toys to collect in just five days if they wanted to reach their goal. StudCo buckled down and got to work, advertised on social media, created a raffle of prizes for students who donated, and even promised to give students who brought in five or more toys 50% off of their Sadies ticket.