Published: November 21, 2008 11:57 pm      

East Dale students in spirit of giving

Collect 1,554 cans of food to beat goal

MEADOWDALE — Students at East Dale Elementary have jumped into the spirit of giving.

Each year, the school’s Builders Club hosts a canned-food drive, group adviser Alice Muto said.

This year’s food drive was bigger than ever before with 1,554 cans collected in fewer than 10 days.

“Our goal was 1,000 in 10 days,” Muto said. “We made it in three days.”

The cans were donated to the Knights of Columbus, which in turn, took them to the Soup Opera.

Knights Jim Meluzio and Bob Wright were on hand Thursday morning to pick up the cans and deliver them. The pair had to come in to make an emergency trip last week to make room, Meluzio said.

“East Dale is always fantastic about collecting,” he said. “They always get lots of food.”

Meluzio estimated the students had collected about eight truckloads of food.

“We owe it all to the school,” he said.

Muto said the school really got into the collection and even held a close competition. Each class had a turkey made out of construction paper placed on a huge bulletin board in the school’s main hallway. For every 10 cans collected, each class received a feather to place on their turkey. By the time collection ended Thursday, the turkeys were brightly feathered.

“We just feel there are 500-plus of us and surely we can donate a can of food to those less fortunate,” Muto said.

The Builders Club isn’t finished with projects yet. Next up, the club will coordinate a school-wide effort to make holiday cards to send to disabled veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

E-mail Katie Wilson at kwilson@timeswv.com.