One push was all it took

By AMANDA C. DAVIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CHAMPION -- A food drive sparked a domino effect of response, prompting students and staff at Trumbull Career and Technical Center to fill the school cafeteria with enough macaroni and cheese to go around.
Students, faculty and administrators gathered at the school Tuesday to watch as about 1,500 boxes of dry goods were set up like dominoes and knocked down, all in the name of charity.
The food drive capped fund-raising events that began Feb. 11 for Career and Technical Education Week. All proceeds benefit Second Harvest Food Bank in Youngstown.
Deb Arndt is public relations chairwoman for an executive committee of faculty that helped plan events.
She said instructors wanted to spearhead an effort "to give back to the community."
When planning first began, Arndt said, a few groups of students and faculty agreed to help out.
"It turned into a school-wide effort," she said. "People got more creatively involved than I ever imagined they would."
Efforts: Some examples of their efforts:
U The school raised $100 by selling paper cut-outs of feet to "Stomp Out Hunger."
U TCTC's Youth Leadership Council held an ice cream social and contest to see which programs could generate the most food. Students in building maintenance won, bringing in 1,488 boxes, and the auto collision program placed second with 1,327 boxes. Altogether, this portion of the drive generated 4,000 boxes of food.
U Faculty and students brought in food on their own, and this effort was rewarded by some instructors who gave extra credit.
U Students with special needs helped set up and transport boxes of food into the cafeteria.
U The Component Testing and Evaluation Center of Champion, Kent State University Trumbull Campus, Trumbull County Educational Service Center and TCTC's adult education center also collected food for the drive.
Also, the school's National and Technical Honor Society recently hosted a pie-throwing contest, with administrators as targets. Local businesses and individuals donated supplies for the contest, which raised $457 for Second Harvest.
Physics teacher Jeff McClain and science instructor Agostino Ragozzin held a contest to see which students would design the domino structure. Winners were Shawn Ervin, a junior precision machining major from LaBrae, and Richard Poling, a senior drafting major from Warren.
The scene: Many of the school's 890 students watched the event on closed circuit TV as Shawn and Richard set off the domino of macaroni and cheese, Jiffy muffin mix and other goods.
The crowd cheered as the domino made its course in circles, rows and rectangles.
Ervin said he was happy with the design, even though some boxes were placed too far apart, at times halting the domino's flow.
"We did a good job," he added.
Arndt and Jeannie Morello, TCTC's career assessment specialist, said they think the school surpassed its goal to collect 7,000 food items.
"There is food all over the school," TCTC Superintendent Dianne Kenzie said. "We've got lots of macaroni and cheese. And rice. And Jell-O."