Kids bring in the cans

PALMER -- Students at Palmer Junior Middle School have spent the last few weeks collecting canned food for the Salvation Army in Palmer. While not the first canned food drive at the school, teachers and students alike are saying it has been the most successful.

"It's a canned food drive just like any other canned food drive," said student council advisor Steve Young. "But the kids just went nuts."

With a goal of collecting 1,500 cans of food by Wednesday, the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at PJMS had already collected more than 3,000 cans as of Friday. While the incentive of a pizza party for the winning homeroom played a partial role in the drive's success, Young said it was actually the sincere desire to help other people that drove the huge donations.

"They were more concerned with helping other people [than pizza]," Young said.

Jane Mastre, an eighth-grader and a member of student council, confirmed Young's belief.

"It's for needy people and that's the main reason we started this," she said.

Major Dan Hughes of the Salvation Army showed up at the school while the cans were being sorted. He said donations will help feed the numerous families in need in the Valley.

"We are up 100 families over last year, that's a definite increase in need this year," Hughes said. "This will all be handed out by next Tuesday."

The winning homeroom as of Friday was Gary Howell's eighth grade homeroom class. Howell said he had never seen such determination during a canned food drive, even when he taught in a school of more than 4,000 students in Las Vegas.

"It all goes to a good cause and the end results are fantastic," said Howell, whose classroom collected more than 900 cans.

The school's student council chaired the event; cans collected during this week will be saved for Christmas, when more food boxes will be distributed by the Salvation Army.