Teens go door-to-door for a good cause

About 80 teenagers and 15 parents gave up their Sunday to participate in a scavenger hunt benefiting Advocates to End Domestic Violence and Friends In Service Helping.

Students from St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church's Christian Education classes spread throughout Carson City to collect donations of food, personal care products and other items for their sixth annual scavenger hunt.

"We considered not doing this again this year because I didn't think enough kids were interested," said Janet Hughes, coordinator and pastoral assistant for St. Teresa's. "But this is the most we have ever done. I can't believe it."

Two trucks were filled to the brim with food and Hughes' Ford Explorer was bursting at the seams with personal care items.

Some people donated money.

In all, about $65 in cash was handed to the eager students. One person gave two pairs of silver earrings.

Smith's sold one parent, 20 bags of diapers for $2 each.

Another set of parents carried around a cooler full of frozen food.

Seven classes of seventh- and eighth-grade students each had a certain geographic area that they had to cover to avoid overlapping.

Many of the class teams distributed fliers in advance and found labeled donations bagged and waiting on porches.

The competition consisted of high speed "scavenging," counting and tallying the donations and delivering it all to the waiting vehicles at the church. Three hours were allotted to accomplish these tasks. When the time was up, the students met in the church hall for prayer and pizza. Each team will tally points and the group with the highest number is treated to an ice cream party.

"This shows the quality of our teachers and our kids that they are willing to put out for our community," Hughes said. "I'm very proud."