Food Drive Before BIG GAME Will Benefit BTAC

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Charmalee Magoon and her daughter Alyssa Magoon ( JBHS Class '16) at the 2014 BTAC Food Drive

Attendees at the football homecoming games this week at Memorial Field may notice the collection of canned goods and other non-perishable items. The collection is for a homecoming food drive.

Post cards and automated calls, and information on Burbank and John Burroughs high schools’ websites have announced the food drive.

Charmalee Magoon and her daughter Alyssa Magoon (  JBHS Class '16) at the 2014 BTAC Food Drive
Charmalee Magoon and her daughter Alyssa Magoon ( JBHS Class ’16) at the 2014 BTAC Food Drive at Memorial Field

The homecoming food drive benefits the Burbank Temporary Aid Center (BTAC) and is now in its third year. The idea for the food drive started with Charmalee Magoon, whose four children attend Burbank schools, with two of them at John Burroughs High School.

Magoon said she joined the National Charity League, a nonprofit that focuses on community service and mother-daughter relationships when her daughter was going into eighth grade. Magoon was invited to join by a member.

The National Charity League was established in Los Angeles in 1925, and incorporated in 1958, according to its website. Their mission is to foster mother-daughter relationships in a philanthropic organization committed to community service, leadership development and cultural experiences. NCL’s Burbank chapter helps over 25 local charities.

Burbank’s NCL chapter organizes monthly food drives for BTAC, Olivia Boyce, co-president, said in an email, adding that different grade levels are responsible for a food drive for a different month. For the homecoming food drive, the entire chapter will be participating to help get ready for the holidays, which can be a difficult time for many families.

Magoon said she and her daughter Alyssa have been members of NCL since Alyssa, was in eighth grade.

“My daughter is now a senior this year at John Burroughs,” she said.

When Alyssa was younger, she was a Girls Scout, and started as a Brownie, Magoon said. But by middle school, they were in search of something else, something that focused more on volunteer work on a consistent basis.

Magoon was also familiar with BTAC and had been donating to the organization for some time.

“BTAC has always been one of my favorite philanthropies,” Magoon said. “They really do good service for people that need help. When my daughter was a baby, my husband and I fell on hard times and couldn’t pay our electric bill. Someone mentioned BTAC might be able to help, and they did help. They paid the bill in full, and we were able to keep the power on. I try to give back to them, ever since.”

Magoon said once, while her daughter was in Girl Scouts, her troop made lunches for BTAC. With her work in NCL and desire to keep giving back to BTAC, the idea for the homecoming food drive began to take shape.

“I’ve helped any way I can over the years, and thought, ‘What a better way to do a community food drive?’ There are so many past alumni that go to this game,” Magoon said of the Burroughs-Burbank football game. “There are kids in college who come back just to go to this game, and there are so many Burbank families that are second and third generation [alumni].”

“So why can’t they bring a couple of cans of food with them?” Magoon thought.

It’s become a little competition between the two schools, she said.

As for who has brought the most non-perishable items, Magoon said the score is tied.

Magoon added: “If everybody brought one thing, imagine how much we could take back to BTAC.”
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Attendees to this week’s games are asked to bring non-perishable food items, toiletries and baby items.

Collection times are as follows:

Freshman game — Thursday, Nov. 5th, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
JV game — Thursday, Nov. 5th, 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Varsity game — Friday, Nov. 6th, 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

All games take place at Memorial Field, at John Burroughs High School, at 1920 W. Clark Ave.

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