By Sarah Busken, Sports Editor — The Change Bandit is a Northeastern Ohio fundraiser for the Akron Children’s Hospital. The Change Bandit program has been going on for years, and many local radio stations such as 94.1 have participated in the fundraising with their “Have a Heart Do Your Part” radio-thon. Also many local businesses, and schools will become “Change Bandits” in order to raise money for the hospital and children. This year the National Honors Society, Key Club and Student Council students will be “robbing” classes for their pocket change. Starting Jan. 20 the students, teachers and staff were be able to donate to Akron Children’s hospital through the school and National Honors Society, and make a difference in a child’s life.

“This year Student Council, National Honor Society, and Key Club are collaborating on the project,” National Honors Society adviser Emily Palmer said.

All the money given to the Change Bandit program will be used to purchase child size medical equipment and fund care for patients, outreach to the community and research.

“The class that collects the most money will receive donuts for the whole class,” National Honors Society President Mianna Schut said. “Also, the winning teacher in each wing will have free copying labor for an entire month, so they don’t have to do it themselves.”

In recent years National Honors Society has done canned food drives for the Stark County Hunger Task Force or a coin drive. The Student Council has usually done Pennies for Patients; but this year the two have decided to work together.

“The National Honor Society student also collected item and created 100 activity bags for Akron Children’s Hospital in November and December of 2014,” Palmer said.

The National Honors Society will count the donations for every class and announce them to the school during the afternoon announcements, which will be on Feb. 5. The “Change Bandits” encourage every student, staff and community to donate to this wonderful cause.

[Updated Aug. 8, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]