CONGRATULATIONS GRASSO TECH ON A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL FOOD DRIVE!  While the competition results may not be what we’d hoped for, the quantity of food collected (for Grasso and all schools) is beyond comprehension.  We had a wonderful number of students and staff doing their part and several who went above and beyond to help our cause.  THANKS EVERYONE!

Here are the complete charts for the in-house and school competitions.  Please feel free to crunch the numbers any way you think may be helpful.  Contact Mrs. Clement for ideas on what went well, what didn’t work, and how on earth we’re going to beat Ellis next year!

Congratulations go to the seniors who won the right to create a mural celebrating their class.  While all the students merit praise, the juniors deserve a lot of credit for hanging in there.  While they still finished 4th, they battled back to be only 7 points out of 3rd rather than giving up.

The Second Annual East of the River Connecticut Technical High School System Food Drive Challenge is a competition between Grasso Tech in Groton, Norwich Tech, Windham Tech, Cheney Tech in Manchester, and Ellis Tech in Danielson.  It began last year as a challenge between Windham and Ellis with such success that they invited the other schools to try and beat them.

All food items collected were assigned points by weight.  Each pound is worth one point with all weights being rounded up to the next pound.  General consensus in the school is that so far it was the most successful food drive Grasso has had in a while.  The grades are also having fun competing against one another to win the opportunity to create a mural celebrating their class spirit.  The lead changed hands several times with the seniors winning the top spot.  Faculty and staff also contributed, although many have used their contributions to fuel the battle between the grades.

All food collected at Grasso will be donated to the Groton Food Locker and the New London Area Food Pantry.  These food banks identified several items they needed.  These include canned fruit, spaghetti sauce, cereal, soups (including small ones), baked beans, instant potatoes, dessert mixes, beef stew, pasta (including canned), canned vegetables (especially yellow and green), jelly, corn beef hash, hamburger helper, macaroni and cheese, rice, and juice drinks. 

The food drive at Grasso was organized by Jennifer Clement, the school social worker, and a group of students representing the major student organizations in the school.  Many other students have found ways to help and all are asked to contribute.