Every year, the holiday spirit fills Cape High students through the art of giving. Select teachers choose to have their 5th period classes participate in a program called Project Sutton.
This program began in the 1990’s by a teacher at Cape High named Anne Sutton. She saw how there were students in need, who didn’t have much food. Especially during the holidays and so she started a donation program to help those students in need.
Stacey Green, Flock Shop teacher and Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) sponsor at Cape High, is who oversees the project and is the go-between the students who run the logistics and administrators who know which students are in need.
Green got involved in Project Sutton back in 2022, right after Hurricane Ian had passed. She had just recently returned to teach at Cape High again and that’s when she heard that the program had faded away. “There were so many families that needed support near the holidays, so that was when we [DECA] kind of stepped in,” said Green.
DECA club is the business club for students who are interested in pursuing careers in the marketing, finance, business management, or hospitality and tourism area. Their job in this project is to get students to donate. Kyle Rheinschmidt, a sophomore and the Director of Project Sutton at Cape High, explains his role in the program. “I do a lot of organizing, getting things coordinated with the students, and getting students involved with the project.”
Other DECA students contribute their time and effort to the project so that it can have a successful outcome. Clayton Parker, an IB Junior and member of the DECA club, shares how his goal was to be able to get students to raise money to feed at least 3 families. They exceeded this goal tremendously by raising $1300 which’ll help feed a total of 13 families.
To be able to get so many students to donate so that they could reach this amount, DECA members decided that the 5th period class who raised the most money would win a pizza party. Madame Taymont’s class was the one who ended up raising the most money this year which was $529.18. Green says it’s, “One of the biggest contributions we’ve had from our class ever.”
They’ve done prizes for classes with most money raised in previous years as well. 2023 had a donut competition where they raised $1500. Last year, they were only able to raise $1000.
The project has had a huge turn around since Green came back in 2022 and helped it reinstart. “I’m glad that it’s something that’s continuing. I believe in a lot of tradition and especially community tradition,” said Green. “We need to make this happen because this is something that is special to Cape High.”
Students also share the same sentiments of Green’s. They believe it’s important to help people in any way they can. “I’m definitely very passionate about giving back to my community and like more needy people,” said Parker.
