JohnCarrollHigh School students are in the spirit of Thanksgiving!

John Carroll High School students are in the spirit of giving this holiday season. Principal Ben Hopper asked the students to donate to the annual school Thanksgiving Food Drive last week. This food drive would be an ordinary occurrence at any school, but Mr. Hopper set an extremely lofty goal for the school to bring in 2,000 cans of food in just two days!

Mr. Hopper knew that the organization receiving the donation, Project Response, was relying primarily on John Carroll High School for their food donations again this year. With that in mind, he assigned each homeroom a specific food item that was needed by the organization. Each homeroom was given the goal of donating 100 items each, such as yams, green beans, stuffing, fruit, etc.

The response was overwhelming! The students, faculty, and staff were able to donate over 3,000 items, equating to 3,000 pounds Tuesday, November 21. Dave Parziale, Food Pantry Coordinator, from Project Response picked up the huge load of food with great gratitude. Project Response is an organization that serves HIV/ AIDS patients in the four county area. "We depend on John Carroll High School every year; they have been donating to us for the past 15 years. I was shocked when they called this year and told me they had 3,000 food items! The school is the largest donation we receive, and we are extremely grateful."

In addition to helping Project Response this Thanksgiving, eighteen different John Carroll High School clubs donated five complete Thanksgiving dinners to Mustard Seed Ministries. The meals included the turkey, stuffing, corn, green beans, pies, cooking utensils, drinks, fresh flowers, and all the Thanksgiving fixings.

The school did not want to forget those serving in the armed forces this holiday and donated 32 boxes to the troops serving overseas. The boxes held American flags, playing cards, candies, soup and handwritten thank you notes from the students. The John Carroll students wanted to express their thanks to the soldiers who are away from their families during this time.

Mr. Hopper commented, "I am so proud of our student body and employees. They have donated these items with grateful hearts and the desire to make a difference. Our students have much to be thankful for, and they have turned their energy toward helping others- exactly what Thanksgiving is all about."