What started four years ago with four determined students and a pickup truck has grown into a schoolwide movement of generosity, teamwork, and service. This year, North Royalton Middle School students have taken the annual food drive to a whole new level—collecting over 11,000 items from November 10-21. The school worked with the North Royalton Office of Aging and the North Royalton Food Bank at Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church. The school collected 10,715 cans/boxes of food and $6,616 for a grand total of 17,331 items/cash donations.
The food drive began with four boys—Ben Wright, Carson Evangelista, Logan Hanzel, and Wesley Beck—who wanted to make a difference in their community. Their first effort brought in 1,600 items. Word spread, excitement grew, and each year the group expanded:
Year 1: 4 boys — 1,600 items
Year 2: 6 boys — 2,500 items
Year 3: 8 boys — 2,400 items
Year 4 (This Year): 11 boys/1 girl — 3,900 items collected by their team alone
This “friends inviting friends” model has sparked remarkable growth and inspired students in multiple grade levels to form their own teams and join the mission.
This year, younger siblings and their friends jumped in to help. Fifth-grader Emma Wright—Ben’s sister—rallied her friends Bella Gennaro and Penelope Whewell, and the trio collected an incredible 945 items on their own.
Sixth-grader CeCe Beck, sister of Wesley, organized a group of her friends, Brooke Lewis and Lily Moehring, who canvassed neighborhoods to represent their grade level. Together, they collected 550 items.
Every team contributed to the schoolwide total, creating friendly competition and building a sense of shared pride across all grades. Seventh grade came in first place and won an additional movie day with popcorn.
This year’s 8th-grade group grew to 11 boys and 1 girl, who together collected 3,900 items. Their effort—combined with the younger teams and the broader school community—pushed the entire drive beyond 11,000 items, the highest total NRMS has ever seen.
Student Council members helped by making signs and announcements, checking expiration dates, and counting, boxing, and moving all the food to a central location. Teacher Chuck Mercurio made a deal with his students that if they collected 1,000 cans, he would karaoke a song of their request. Students also helped prepare donation bags by attaching door hangers, organizing collections, and unloading donations.
Students said…
Cece Beck “I watched my brother all of these years collecting food for the canned food drive and it looked like a lot of fun.I wanted to contribute like he did, so I asked my friends if they wanted to go around neighborhoods as well this year.”
Logan Hanzel: “I felt very pleased knowing that our handwork paid off and the community would be helped.”
Carson Evangelista: “I plan on continuing to help with the food drive even though I will be in high school. I want to help my friends' siblings who are in middle school. I want them to experience what my friends experienced and the joy that comes from helping your community.”
Penelope Thomas: “I am so happy that I was given the chance to help out this year. This has really given me the urge to be a bigger part of the community.”
Benjamin Wright: “I really liked how we came together to help out so many people, but also to influence my siblings and other people to donate so many cans this year.”
