Students ‘pie’ superintendent as reward for clothing drive
Published 8:26 pm Friday, May 13, 2016
Isabella students smashed pies into the face of Superintendent of Education Tommy Glasscock on Friday, but it was not some cruel prank.
Glasscock willingly served as target for the pies as a reward to students for their participation in a county-wide Spring into Giving clothing drive.
The drive was initiated by Chilton County High School senior and Miss Jefferson State Community College Hannah Tierce.
The effort benefitted the Raleigh’s Place Clothing Closet and Chilton County Department of Human Resources.
As part of her responsibilities as Miss Jeff State, Tierce, who was adopted shortly after birth, chose “Hannah’s Heart: Putting the Focus on Adoption” as her platform.
“I wouldn’t be who I am today without being adopted,” Tierce said.
While singing at a Raleigh’s Place fundraiser, Tierce saw a video of a girl being taken from her home and having to place her belongings in a garbage bag.
“By the end of the video, everybody was in tears,” Tierce said. “It was heartbreaking. I just felt really called to help Raleigh’s Place.”
Tierce then new she wanted to sponsor a clothing drive and to spend time mentoring the children at Raleigh’s Place.
Glasscock invited Tierce to speak to an assembly of local principals, and each school participated in the drive in its own way in March and April
Thorsby Key Club members made paper cut-outs of clothes, then sold them for $1 each to be able to make a monetary donation to the drive.
Isabella offered pizza parties to the class in each building that collected the most clothes and ended up collecting the most clothes: 2,520 pounds.
“It kind of snowballed,” Principal Ricky Porter said about the effort and participation.
Isabella students did not even know that their grand prize for collecting the most was to get to “pie” the superintendent.
Karla Doroteo, Zoie Hayes, Lindsey Wilson and Amber Norris took turns with the pies on Friday.
Overall the drive collected 4,500 pounds of clothing and $700.