Linganore High School (LHS)  hosted a fundraiser for Safe and Sane, which is held at the end of the year for graduating students. The event, known as the Egg My House fundraiser, allows Frederick County parents to order a set of a dozen colorful plastic eggs filled with two candies.

These eggs will then be delivered and placed around their front yard for Easter morning. These packages of eggs are all filled and dispatched by Linganore High School students, who can earn hours to fulfill their student service learning (SSL) credit to graduate from LHS. 

The Egg My House fundraiser was started in 2020 by some senior moms raising money for Linganore’s unofficial prom. The donations contributed some of the funds for the 2020 LHS senior prom at Gaver Farm, which took place during COVID-19. The fundraiser was picked up by the LHS Safe and Sane Committee (S&S Committee) the following year to raise money for the event. Safe and Sane Co-chair Nate McKinstry noted that this would be their fourth-year holding the event for Safe and Sane.

This fundraiser was advertised online to the LHS Parent Teacher Student Association’s (PTSA) Instagram on February 25. The Linganore Safe and Sane Committee teamed up with the Easter Bunny, and buyers can purchase up to seven dozen eggs. The first dozen eggs were sold for $15, with an extra $10 for each additional dozen. The donations from this fundraiser go to support the senior graduation party at the end of the year. 

The LHS Safe and Sane event is an end of the year party for graduating seniors after their graduation ceremony in May. This celebration is hosted by the school to ensure students’ safety while partying for their graduation. The event is funded by the multitude of events held throughout the year by the PTSA and S&S Committee such as the Egg My House fundraiser.  

News about the Egg My House egg filling was not widely spread within the LHS community. Many students report they only heard about the event from a friend or from other teachers. 

“[I heard about the event] through a friend,” Linganore sophomore Reagan O’Brien said as she worked alongside junior Emma Ogden packing eggs. 

“I thought [participating in the event would] be fun because it’s very festive,” LHS senior Ava Ablondi said. She hopes to meet other students participating in the event, while giving back to other families in the community. 

On March 20, a handful of students met up after school in Linganore’s Learning Commons to begin the process of packaging the eggs. The head coordinator for the fundraiser was parent Jennifer Rankin, who directed the students in how to fill the eggs. Buyers had two options to choose between for  what candies would be filled in each egg: a non-chocolate candy and a chocolate candy or two chocolate candies. These eggs would be counted into batches by the dozen, placed inside a bag for convenience and confirmed to have the right number of eggs for each order. 

“[Packing the Easter eggs] was tedious, but I think it was worth the hours,” Ablondi said. Many of the students stayed for the entire time, up to four hours of work, to help the staff in packing and organizing the eggs.

The students who devoted their time to help with the fundraiser were divided into small groups to either pack the colorful eggs with candy or double-check  the bags of eggs to make sure that the proper number of eggs are inside. In total, students were able to make 7,260 eggs, over 600 dozen batches of eggs after four hours of packing. 

Despite the fact that students did not receive anything other than community service hours for their hard work, many enjoyed giving back to their community for the betterment of families who would benefit from this egg surprise. 

“[The Egg My House committee] did it [placed eggs] for my house, and my little sister was so happy,” LHS Freshman Olivia Proper said. Proper was happy to follow in the steps of past students to contribute to the joy of other families who can also have eggs on Easter.

“I enjoy helping, [and] being a part of something bigger than myself,” Rankin said.  “I love the time with my daughter, who is coming back from college to help hide eggs.” Rankin also enjoyed helping out her community in an activity she has participated in for multiple years with her own family. 

The Egg My House fundraiser was successful and raised over $500 for the Safe and Sane event. The students and parents involved in the event were able to package and hide all the eggs to the homes of Frederick County.