No Tricks, Just Treats for Needy

While most younger children are out searching for candy and some older ones are out looking for mischief this Halloween, one group of Pomona Valley teen-agers will be going door-to-door asking for cans of food to help feed the hungry.

“We thought that people already are opening their doors to hand out candy, why not cans of food?� said Brian Coulter, the organizer of the Youth Canned Food Drive.

Coulter said the group also wants to provide an activity for youths who are too old to go trick-or-treating, and to show that many teen-agers are responsible members of the community.

“We want to clean up our negative image,� he said.

Coulter, 17, is a senior at Ganesha High School. He came up with the idea for the canned-food drive while attending a youth leadership conference this summer. After proposing the idea to Ganesha’s student council, he took it to the three other high schools now participating: Garey, Diamond Bar and Pomona.

Kim Sutton, activities director at Ganesha, said Coulter collected the money needed for advertising and got people involved.

“He really managed to start it up primarily on his own,� she said, but then everyone “fell into line.� Now, about 300 students from the four high schools have participated, and most of them will be collecting food Halloween night, Coulter said.

Brian Shiu, 17, also a senior at Ganesha, has helped Coulter with the drive from the beginning. He said most of the students have been enthusiastic about the idea.

“If this turns out to be pretty successful, the kids could look at it and say, ‘Let’s do this again, like for Christmas,’ � Shiu said.

Preparation for the evening has involved sending out flyers to elementary schools, posting signs, setting up the drives at elementary schools and holding weekly meetings with the organizers from each high school.

Local junior high schools are also participating. A few are sponsoring dances at which the admission fee will be a can of food.

On Halloween night, from about 6 to 9 p.m., about 20 teen-agers will gather at drop-off points at 12 schools in the Pomona Valley. From there they will disperse to nearby neighborhoods and ask for cans of food.

The group is hoping to collect about 10,000 cans of food Halloween night that will be donated to the Pomona chapter of the Salvation Army. After the cans have been collected, a dance is scheduled. The admission fee is an old pair of shoes, which will be given to the homeless.