Great food drive

To the editor:

Please join me in celebrating the incredible accomplishments of the Sakai Middle School students and faculty. They recently completed a food drive for Helpline House that brought in a whopping 32,000 pounds of food. You might have seen them in front of Safeway, Rite Aid and Town & Country – their efforts filled over 1,000 boxes, and they brought not one, but two U-Hauls to drop off donations. As executive director I can say this is one of our largest food drives ever.

A special shout out to the Bainbridge High School wrestling team and National Honor Society, who each heard our call for help and came running, literally, to help us unload all the boxes from the U-Hauls. We truly have incredible young people in our community.

Maria Metzler

Bainbridge Island

Thanks volunteers

Thanks to the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation and to the nearly 100 volunteers who joined us on Saturday for a Day of Service at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.

Saturday was the 80th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066, which set in motion the exile of 120,000 Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes. We use this date every year to spruce up the memorial in preparation for the March 30 commemoration of the day the entire BI Japanese American community was taken from their island.

The weather cooperated, the volunteers worked hard, and the memorial never looked more spruce. Join us at 11 a.m. on March 30 and see for yourself.

Val Tollefson

Bainbridge Island