Ware students aim to collect 1,200 cans

WARE, Mass. (WWLP) - Helping needy families with Thanksgiving dinner isn't something children learn out of a school text book, but it's a lesson in life that students at Ware Middle School learn every day.

“Honestly, we're just helping the community and helping show what children can do,” Ware fifth grader Benjamin Silverio said.

What they have done since the middle of October, and in spite of a weeklong power outage, has been to collect 600 cans and packages of food. They are halfway home towards their goal of 1,200 food items by Thursday, when they will deliver the food to the town's food pantry, the Jubilee Cupboard. Their thoughts are the people they'll help.

“We're just going to make their Thanksgiving because we're grateful enough to have all these good things,” sixth grader Karay Rous said.

They are also motivated by dressing up a featherless turkey on the wall with hundreds of paper feathers representing the amount of food they've already collected. The kids from the school's leadership council feel such pride. “Oh yes, this is something I would love to do again and again, because it just brings joy to me, to see other people have Thanksgiving,” sixth grader Tristan Cutten said.

The next three days are crucial to the success of their food drive. They have until Thursday to reach their goal. If you can donate canned food to this drive, call the Ware Middle School at (413) 967-6903.