Cape DECA students donate to blanket drive

Each year, the Cape Henlopen School District homeless liaisons coordinate a community caring event around the holidays.

Local groups, organizations and individuals adopt families in need in the Cape District. Donors provide gifts for the children to open on Christmas morning, and many also donate sheets, blankets and pillows to be handed out to the families on gift distribution day.

When Cape Henlopen High School students who are part of DECA learned that there were students and families in need of warm blankets over the winter season, they were eager to help. Together the group purchased and donated 200 blankets to the community caring event.

DECA is an organization that encourages its associations, chapters and members to continuously conduct community outreach and service. This is one of the core pieces of the social responsibility aspect instilled into the membership base, even though it is a business and marketing competition organization.

“Our DECA and BPA officers challenged our members to demonstrate this social responsibility throughout the entire year,” said Gabriel Martinez, a Cape Henlopen High School teacher and DECA club advisor. “Two of our members used funds from our year-round fundraising efforts to purchase the blankets from our local Walmart.”

“We are fortunate that every year we’ve been able to give each member of every family who is part of our Community Caring event a warm blanket and pillow on the day they pick up their gifts,” said David McDowell, homeless liaison for Cape Henlopen School District. “We are grateful for student organizations like DECA and BPA who make it part of their mission to help their fellow students in need.”