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Class effort

Students race, food bank collects

By Mary Ellen Zangara Special Writer
   Local families receiving food from the Somerset County Food Bank in Bridgewater can enjoy an extra helping, thanks to a Manville High School project that used a little friendly interclass competition to collect more than 1,000 items for the food bank.
   The students collected food over recent weeks, but held an event on Nov. 21 pitting the grades against each in challenging events — such as crab walk, wheelbarrow and one-foot races — to add a little more excitement to the effort, which was won by the senior class.
   ”When I was in Student Council, I was always a runner for my grade but we did it with junk from our junk drawers at home,” adviser Michael Lapatosky said. “I decided it would be great to combine the food drive and the class competition.”
   He said Student Council President Juliana Andrade suggested making “things more interesting” by adding the crab walk and wheelbarrow races.
   ”Food banks in Somerset County need food for the winter months and the holidays and the MHS Student Council runs a food drive but makes it a class competition among the classes of ‘08, ‘09, ‘10, ‘11 to boost the amount of food that we receive in donations,” he said.
   Mr. Lapatosky, along with the junior class adviser Leslie Strauss, came up with the list of what items they were going to call for the competition.
   Students used the afternoon of the half-day of school before Thanksgiving for the races.
   Each class selected a team of four students to compete in different events such as the crab walk, wheelbarrow race and even hopping on one foot. Other members of the class were seated in the bleachers, wearing their class colors and seated with their class’s donation for the food bank.
   As items were called, the class racers had to take them from the bleachers to a box in the center of the gym floor — using one of the challenging forms.
   The class with the most points from the race along with the most spirit won the competition. The senior class took that title for this year.
   ”This year the kids have truly outdone themselves,” Mr. Lapatosky said. “They amassed an amazing 1,057 items — I am sure that is well over 600 pounds based on our past donations.”
   He noted the school had to schedule the donation with the food bank because it was so much.
   ”I think it is the most that I have seen as a student myself or an adviser,” he said. “These kids are outstanding examples of the quality of Manville’s youth and deserve to be recognized for the things they do. They really went over the top this time.”
   The food was collected by the students through grade specific boxes in English classes and was donated to the Somerset County Food Bank in Bridgewater.