About a month ago, a challenge went out to the students of Lawrence County — gather supplies for the homeless.

Each school was tasked with bringing in different items. Rock Hill students were to bring in body wash, Symmes Valley students were to bring in hand lotion, Dawson-Bryant students got paper towels, Chesapeake got brushes and combs, Fairland got gloves, South Point students were to bring in socks and Ironton students got shampoo.

On Tuesday morning at the Ironton High School, students were loading up the bed of a small pickup truck with their combined haul of over a thousand bottles of shampoo. And that was just the first load. After that was dropped off, the truck still had to go to the elementary and middle school to pick up more shampoo for the shelter.

Beth Campbell, school aide, volleyball coach and assistant girl’s basketball coach at IHS, said their shampoo drive began about three weeks ago.

“We’ve been collecting it and giving a running total every Friday to keep the kids informed,” she said. “As of this morning, it was 1,255 bottles of shampoo, just from the high school.”

That number jumped up when a mother dropped off 20 more bottles after the truck had already left to deliver the first load to Jobs and Family Services.

The elementary and middle schools contributed about 400 bottles. Their numbers were lower because they also had a food drive to feed the hungry on Thanksgiving.

Campbell said that the students were very generous and enjoyed the friendly rivalry between the classes on which one could gather more shampoo.

“We take pride in what we do here in Ironton and we are always trying to help out and teach the kids that they can go farther in life by helping others,” she said. “And they did a great job.”

The chemistry class of John Distel came in first by collecting 171 bottles of shampoo. The multi-category class of Mandy Kirkendall came in second with 102 bottles and the Spanish class of Carissa Weber came in third with 98 bottles.

Peighton Rowe, an 11th grader in the chemistry class, said her family donated 50 bottles of shampoo.

“I have a lot of family and all I did was text them and everyone wanted to help, that’s how I got so many bottles,” she explained. “It was a good cause and we always want to help people.”

Malea Delawder, also an 11th grader in the chemistry class, said she was happy about her class wining the friendly rivalry.

“Mr. Distel really motivated us to bring in shampoo,” she said. “Because he likes to win also and it’s a for a good cause.”

Every class that got more than 60 bottles gets to attend a picnic at the school.