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Nick Richardson and Adam Woods didn’t know what to expect when a handful of teachers at William Chrisman High School wanted to surprise the two seniors with a final food drive in their honor.
The two Chrisman basketball players had organized a highly successful food drive during the 2010-11 basketball season they called Live to Feed that resulted in an overflowing food pantry at the Salvation Army site on Truman Road.
“We collected about 5,000 items during the basketball season,” Woods said. “We couldn’t believe how generous the community was in supporting our food drive.”
This final food drive, which was tabbed “April Madness”, sent Richardson and Wood home from their final day of school with warm hearts and enormous smiles as it totaled 5,344 items – enough groceries and canned goods to fill a hallway at the high school.
“I can’t believe it,” Woods said. “We have something called Learning Communities at the high school, and they are divided into four different groups that are named after bears (because the high school’s nickname is the Bears).
“Matt Sisk, who was a freshman coach and the leader of the Panda House community, organized the food drive and came up with the idea of having a bracket where the different communities could compete against each other.”
Head basketball coach John Vickers and assistant basketball coach Jason Stacy’s Focus Classes (which meet once a week) were the two finalists with Vickers’ class coming out on top with a total of 2,398 items.
“The first week we had 25 items donated,” Vickers said as he brought a few extra food donations to the pile in the southwest entrance of the school.
“The final week we had 1,052.”
He said many of those donations came from members of his church and a group of men who support the Bears basketball team.
“Everyone came through in a big way,” Vickers said. “And what a great way to pay a tribute to Adam and Nick.”
When asked about the genesis of the idea for the final food drive, Sisk refused to take credit.
“This was a collective effort by the teachers, the staff and the students at this school,” Sisk said. “Adam and Nick’s food drive during the basketball season was so successful, and they wanted to have another one – an all-school food drive – and it just didn’t happen.
“So we got together in the Learning Communities and came up with the idea of creating a contest and everything just clicked. Next year, we’re going to call it March Madness, and we’re going to have it in March and it will probably be even crazier.”
Nick Richardson and Adam Woods didn’t know what to expect when a handful of teachers at William Chrisman High School wanted to surprise the two seniors with a final food drive in their honor.
The two Chrisman basketball players had organized a highly successful food drive during the 2010-11 basketball season they called Live to Feed that resulted in an overflowing food pantry at the Salvation Army site on Truman Road.
“We collected about 5,000 items during the basketball season,” Woods said. “We couldn’t believe how generous the community was in supporting our food drive.”
This final food drive, which was tabbed “April Madness”, sent Richardson and Wood home from their final day of school with warm hearts and enormous smiles as it totaled 5,344 items – enough groceries and canned goods to fill a hallway at the high school.
“I can’t believe it,” Woods said. “We have something called Learning Communities at the high school, and they are divided into four different groups that are named after bears (because the high school’s nickname is the Bears).
“Matt Sisk, who was a freshman coach and the leader of the Panda House community, organized the food drive and came up with the idea of having a bracket where the different communities could compete against each other.”
Head basketball coach John Vickers and assistant basketball coach Jason Stacy’s Focus Classes (which meet once a week) were the two finalists with Vickers’ class coming out on top with a total of 2,398 items.
“The first week we had 25 items donated,” Vickers said as he brought a few extra food donations to the pile in the southwest entrance of the school.
“The final week we had 1,052.”
He said many of those donations came from members of his church and a group of men who support the Bears basketball team.
“Everyone came through in a big way,” Vickers said. “And what a great way to pay a tribute to Adam and Nick.”
When asked about the genesis of the idea for the final food drive, Sisk refused to take credit.
“This was a collective effort by the teachers, the staff and the students at this school,” Sisk said. “Adam and Nick’s food drive during the basketball season was so successful, and they wanted to have another one – an all-school food drive – and it just didn’t happen.
“So we got together in the Learning Communities and came up with the idea of creating a contest and everything just clicked. Next year, we’re going to call it March Madness, and we’re going to have it in March and it will probably be even crazier.”
But it will be very difficult for it to be more successful.
“I got a call from Adam, and he told me he was bringing some more food for our pantry,” said Ken Tompkins, the volunteer coordinator at the Salvation Army.
“I was thrilled – and then, I see four pickup trucks literally overflowing with food, and I was overcome. I told Nick and Adam and the other boys who were with them that my heart was blessed, and that I’d never seen anything quite like this donation.”
Although the food has not been placed in its final spot in the pantry, it was weighed out at over 5,600 pounds.
“Unbelievable,” Tompkins said, his voice soft with emotion. “The impact Nick, Adam and this school has made on this facility, on the lives of people they will never meet, can never be measured. They have made an impact in this community that will never be forgotten.”
That statement supports a pledge the two Chrisman seniors made back when they were in the eighth grade.
“Nick and I were talking in the eighth grade about making our mark at Chrisman High School,” Woods said. “That was our biggest goal. We didn’t know how we were going to do it, but we knew we wanted to do something special.”
Added Richardson, “I remember talking with Adam. It was during eighth grade football. We knew we could help people out, we just didn’t know how or when it would happen.
“And to have the food drive during basketball, and then to take all this food to the Salvation Army on the last day of school just makes us feel good, it makes us proud. We set out to do something, and we were able to do it – thanks to the help of a lot of special people.”
As they began placing the cartons of canned and boxed goods on the back of a pickup truck, the rain that had pelted the high school suddenly ceased.
“I can’t think of a better way to leave William Chrisman High School on my last day of school,” Richardson said. “Nick and I are just ecstatic with this turnout, with the success of this food drive.
“We can’t change the lives of everyone – but we can change the lives and help a lot of people right here in our community. And that’s what makes life so exciting.”
