Nov. 22 was a happy day at Fountain Hills High School. Students returned to school on Friday morning to find almost two weeks’ worth of effort and friendly competition had made this year’s annual National Honors Society food drive the highest yielding in terms of donations that the high school has ever seen.

Organizers and up-keepers of the food drive, NHS, would like to thank all the supportive staff at FHHS, and especially the members of the community for their generous donations including hundreds of nonperishable food items, tax credit, cash and grocery store gift cards for families in need during the holiday season.

The theme for this year’s food drive was “vintage video games,” and each English teacher was represented by a widely recognized video game: Mario, Zelda, Ms. Pac-Man and Centipede.

Teachers challenged their classes to go head to head against each other and bring in as many donations as possible. The students certainly answered that call. For days, the hallways after school were full of excited students carrying in grocery bags and cardboard boxes full to the brim with donations.

The food drive’s grand total, $10,617.75 worth of donations, was presented to Extended Hands Food Bank of Fountain Hills. The truck was loaded with all the donations on Monday, Nov. 25, and drove off with those gifts that NHS and the participants of this year’s donation drive hope will brighten the holiday season for many local families.