Annual Thanksgiving Basket Competition Brings Caring and Creativity to Help Families in Need
Caring and Creativity Organizers of the annual Thanksgiving Basket Competition encourage both quantity and quality, and judges base their choices on content (variety, size/volume, planning for preparation/alternate meals/leftovers, etc.) and creativity (originality, effort, arrangement, overall presentation). Photo by David F. Morrill
Caring and Creativity The Legal Practice Program’s Section 4 took first prize with a towering Christmas tree complete with musical selections playing in constant loop. Photo by David F. Morrill
Caring and Creativity Section 15 was runner-up with their analog, and very detailed, recreation of the Law School’s online “Docket Digest” newsletter for students, faculty and staff. Photo by David F. Morrill
Caring and Creativity The Legal Practice Program's Section 5 created Lady Justice (with pie crusts serving for the scales of justice), Photo by David F. Morrill
Caring and Creativity Section 8's creativity gave law students a recreation of a famous site indeed. Photo by David F. Morrill
Caring and Creativity The Supreme Court was a supreme food sculpture made by members of Section 13. Photo by David F. Morrill
Caring and Creativity Section 6's Skee-ball game was fully functional! Photo by David F. Morrill
Caring and Creativity Judges carefully tabulate their scores before submitting them for voting. Photo by David F. Morrill
If it’s a week before Thanksgiving at William & Mary Law School, then it must be time for the annual Thanksgiving Basket Competition. And once again, first-year law students were ready with generous amounts of caring and creativity.
Sponsored by the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), this year’s competition—the eighteenth since the event began—saw students collect more than 4,000 canned and boxed food items, as well as two turkeys from Trader Joe’s and $180 in gift cards that will help purchase more turkeys.
All donations go to the Campus Kitchen at William & Mary, to be distributed to those in need in the Williamsburg area.
During the competition, students representing sections of the Legal Practice Program create displays from a wide variety of foods. The idea is to engineer an inspiring display and collect the most amount of food items.
The event’s organizers encouraged both quantity and quality, and judges picked winners on Wednesday, Nov. 14, basing their choices on content (variety, size/volume, planning for preparation/alternate meals/leftovers, etc.) and creativity (originality, effort, arrangement, overall presentation).
The Legal Practice Program’s Section 4 took first prize with a towering Christmas tree complete with musical selections playing in constant loop.
Section 15 was runner-up with their analog, and very detailed, recreation of the Law School’s online “Docket Digest” newsletter for students, faculty and staff.
Other creative works included a recreation of Lady Justice (with pie crusts serving for the scales of justice), replicas of the Supreme Court, a castle (for The Castle Doctrine), a Skee-ball ramp, a rambling display depicting the Long-Arm Statute, a gavel and other law-related structures and items.
Students spent a lot of thought and time on this year’s displays, even with Thanksgiving break and finals looming before them. Chimuanya Osuoha, BLSA’s Community Service Chair, greatly appreciated their efforts.
“I am amazed and grateful to the students, faculty and staff of William & Mary for all the hard work they put into this project,” Osuoha said. “Their actions will help to feed numerous families this Thanksgiving, and I am proud to be part of this William & Mary community.”
Osuoha also thanked the faculty, staff and students who served as judges: Dean Douglas, Professor Tom McSweeney, Gloria Todd, Sherri Donson, and SBA President Alyssa Kaiser ’19.
About William & Mary Law School
Thomas Jefferson founded William & Mary Law School in 1779 to train leaders for the new nation. Now in its third century, America's oldest law school continues its historic mission of educating citizen lawyers who are prepared both to lead and to serve.