Families in need will once again reap the benefits of good organization and collaboration by students in Eureka Springs.

Organized by the Eureka Spring High School’s Future Business Leaders of America, students at the high school and middle school have been working for the past few weeks collecting food items for Thanksgiving dinner baskets.

The annual ESHS FBLA Thanksgiving food drive will conclude Friday, Nov. 10. Classes were asked to bring specific items based on grade level.

“This year, our goal is to fill 20 baskets of food, which will be donated to families in need,” ESHS FBLA president Elijah Redmon said in a release about the project.

The FBLA students work annually collaborating with the other campuses and area businesses to organize and put together the baskets.

Seniors were asked to bring turkey gravy, marshmallows, dessert mix and macaroni and cheese. Juniors were asked to bring instant mashed potatoes, five-pound bags of potatoes, brown sugar and aluminum foil. Sophomores were asked to bring canned corn, corn bread/stuffing mix, cranberry sauce and disposable napkins. The list for the freshmen included green beans, yams, pie crust and disposable plates.

Eureka Springs Middle School students collected canned and boxed items as well and delivered them to the FBLA students at the high school on Wednesday.

ESHS FBLA students who were part of the project included Redmon, parliamentarian Anna Vaverka, treasurer Ava White, historian Ella Ohm, vice president Holley Wood, reporter Isabella Cooley, secretary Kristian Kruse, Maribel Clubbs, Niklas Goodman, Taralyn Goodman, Brooklyn Henry, Michael Lester, Sirius Little, Ava Ohm and Noel Smedley. The FBLA adviser is Billie Reed.

In addition to the FBLA Thanksgiving food drive, business students at ESHS are being treated to a series of guest speakers from Basin Spring and Crescent hotels.

Jack Moyer, executive vice president and general manager of the hotels, and Kyla Boardman, with the hotels’ human resources department, spoke to the Survey of Business class on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

On Thursday, Nov. 9, students in the Markets and Analytics class will hear from Boardman and Danielle Duncan, director of revenue, while first-year Computer Science Programming students will hear from Boardman and Greg Barlett, director of IT at the hotels.

Students in Digital Marketing class will get presentations from Amanda Haley, director of digital marketing, Gina Rambo, director of marketing and communications, and Boardman.