Ladue High School usually competes against Clayton High School, its biggest rival, in the gym or out on the field, but on Nov. 14, Ladue competed with Clayton on a new front in a fundraising race for Hurricane Sandy aid.

Shortly after Sandy dissipated, various businesses, including Disney-ABC and NBC began to raise substantial amounts of money in relief efforts, 17 million and 23 million respectively. Sandy, the biggest Atlantic hurricane on record, hit the Northeastern United States on Oct. 29, most notably devastating New Jersey and New York. Though few lives were lost, the storm cost billions of dollars and left thousands of people homeless. After senior Samantha Shanker brought up the idea to Ladue’s student council, the group decided to organize a fundraiser so that Ladue students should help Sandy’s victims.

“We [decided] to have a day where students could donate money to ‘human collection boxes,'” Shanker said. “[They] were basically students roaming the school with collection boxes and candy. The idea was to get as many people to donate even one dollar because if we reached a lot of people, those dollars would add up. We wanted to raffle off Habitat for Humanity’s iPad for the cause, Hunger Outreach Program (HOP) was going to pitch in, and Domino’s even gave us pizzas to sell. We wanted someone to match our number raised, but so far there haven’t been any offers.”

Because the hurricane occurred so suddenly, Ladue’s student council didn’t have much time to plan the drives. The short notice makes the amount of money all the more impressive.

“We raised over $380 in just the human collection boxes,” Shanker said. “It’s all going to the Red Cross so they can use it to assist the people most in need.”

Whether Ladue beat Clayton in the competition is yet to be determined as the money is still being tallied. But regardless of the winner, Ladue students who donated money should be proud of their contributions. #