Lindale Fire Chief Joe Yeakley and Lindale alum and volunteer firefighter John Nilson visited April 30 to speak to Paige Ridge’s law classes about fire service and the fire academy. Ridge’s law classes held a “Fill Up For Our Firemen” water bottle drive and they collected a total of 3751 bottles of water and sports drinks to donate to the Lindale Fire Department.

“I find that students like competition,” Ridge said. “They also really enjoy what we call ‘boring documentaries’ in my classes so I found a way to capitalize on this while benefiting our local firemen  and first responders. Whichever Law 1 and Law 2 class that donated the most number of bottles in the month of April earned a ‘boring documentary’ for this current week. Competition was fierce with the first place classes winning by 17 bottles or less.”

Ridge had her Law I and Law II classes compete for the highest donations. For Law I, period 6 won with 847 bottles donated, and for Law II, period 5 won with 572 bottles donated.

“I am really pleased with the numbers donated and my students who gave their own money from the jobs they work to buy the water they donated,” Ridge said. “I have really wanted to find ways that my students can actively serve others in the community. Right now I haven’t found a good way for us to physically leave campus to do this so this was a way that we can help those who serve our community every day.”

Chief Yeakley also brought one of their fire trucks and a of the classes were able to go outside and see it before it began to rain later in the day. The firemen brought the donated water bottles back to the fire station at the end of the school day.

“We collected way more water than I thought we would,” junior Vivian Lehmann said. “It felt great to give back to our firefighters, who do so much for the people of this community.”