The MTHS Interhigh organized the 15th annual canned food drive and PPP (Pursuit of the Power Plunger) competition against Lynnwood H.S. which started in 1997.

ASB adviser Kim Stewart said, “We wanted to do something to create a friendly school rivalry between the two schools, so we came up with the canned food drive that would help both communities and the plunger races that we would compete with a full day of basketball.”

The event alternates between the two schools and it took place at Lynnwood H.S. this year on Saturday, Dec. 1. The first basketball game started at 9 a.m. and the final game began at 7 p.m.

The food drive benefits the Mountlake Terrace food bank for those in need during the holiday season. MTHS came short having a total of 4,726 cans compared to last year’s total of around 11,000 cans, while Lynnwood collected an outstanding 16,000 cans this year compared to last year’s total of 8,000 cans.

PPP is scored with various aspects. Two points for the most collected cans, one point for overall attendance and spirit at both of the basketball games, and a point for each of the plunger races. The staff race was cancelled due to various reasons.

Can collection started on Nov. 13 and was based on the four hallways. This year’s theme was “Hair 4 Hunger”, meaning a staff member would dye their hair with the color of their choice after the school reached a certain amount of cans. For example, humanities teacher Chris Ellinger agreed to dye his hair green when MTHS reached the 1000 cans milestone.

However, there was some confusion about how the hallway competition worked including a lack of promotion from ASB and overall lack of school motivation.

Sophomore Katie Tran said, “I think people didn’t even think about bringing cans. I think last year was better, because our English teacher motivated us to bring them for extra credit.”

The winter activities/PPP assembly occurred on Nov. 30. The junior class won both the race.

For the attendance and spirit point, there were about 75 people who cheered and attended the men’s basketball game, but only about 25 people stayed for the women’s game.

Senior Nancy Nguyen, district Interhigh president, said, “There’s a lot of room for improvement such as getting the word out and making sure everyone knew how the system was working. Though the collection and counting went very well, the number of cans isn’t as high as it was last year but we still helped our community and that’s what matters most.”

Lynnwood currently holds an 8-7 all-time lead over Terrace in the PPP competition.