Students exceed expectations for raising money in Fill the Dome effort

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Hundreds of area students outdid themselves, raising more than $20,000 over their goal for Fill the Dome this year.

The third annual food drive raised $96,266 to support local and state food shelves – far surpassing their $75,000 goal.

“You’re making a difference for so many people,” North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven told students this afternoon before the results were announced. “We could not be more proud of you.”

Students also aimed to collect 75 tons of food, though they won’t have the amount tallied until 10 p.m. tonight.

Check back at www.inforum.com for that result.

Their third goal, however, has yet to be reached.

Students wanted to get 7,500 “signatures of awareness” for an online petition showing the community’s understanding of hunger issues. But, they only gathered 2,500 signatures for the petition, which they planned to present to the North Dakota Legislature to urge statewide action to combat hunger.

Organizers are keeping the petition up online at www.fillthedome.org until Thanksgiving with hopes they can garner 5,000 more signatures.

Read Tuesday’s Forum for more on the annual project.

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