NHS Students, Staff, Donate $1,450 in Food Items for the Needy

A week off from school due to mass power outages from the October snow storm didn’t stop Naugatuck High School students and faculty from donating hundreds of dollars in food items to a good cause.

The NHS Student Council held an annual food drive over the past several weeks in which students and faculty were encouraged to donate canned goods and non-perishable items, all of which would go to the .

Every one of the school’s 100 homerooms participated, said Student Council Advisor Ashley Mariano.

In particular, a trio of faculty members — physical education teachers Sean Dunn and Tony Loomis, as well as custodian Doug Hale — donated a total of 700 non-perishable items to the drive.

The donation was done in the name of the Pan-Mass Challenge, a regional fund raising event where athletes take part in a 200-mile bike ride for cancer research, Hale said. Loomis, Dunn and Hale bike in the challenge annually as a team, and apart from donating food the group also donated money in the name of the Pan-Mass cause.

Senior Karistina Kanipstein explained the added bonus for students: those who donated could receiving a discount on a ticket to the Homecoming dance.

The students drove the boxes over to the food bank on Tuesday, just a few days before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Each of the 58 boxes was worth $25, meaning the final cost in donated food amounted to $1,450, said Marty Fenton, food bank director.

“We’d really like to thank the Naugatuck High School faculty, students and staff for helping out and making this happen,” said teacher Theresa Tiscia, who acts as advisor to the Student Council along with Mariano.

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