This week, FHC takes on Football Frenzy, which is a state-wide food drive designed to imitate College GameDay. Hosted at the Ranger Country stadium, students will file in for WOOD TV Daybreak’s Football Frenzy Tailgate on Friday, Oct. 15th. If students pile up at least five non-perishable food items, they will be eligible to enter a raffle with a $250 Visa gift card prize. The food drive is competitive, not only on a class versus class basis but also on an FHC versus other rival schools basis. This high school-level game day provides donations to America Feeding West Michigan. FHC is tasked with the challenge of accumulating over 3,791 pounds of food to win the WOOD TV8 Frenzy Food Drive, and with 1,984 pounds of food, our school will take the drive as a whole past the 10,000 meal mark (“Football Frenzy Food Drive Surpasses 10,000 Pounds of Donated Food”). 

The Central Trend sat down with some Student Council members and staff that helped put this week into play. Let’s check out their opinions and more specifics surrounding this week’s festivities. 

Name: Roman Kalaczinski

Grade: 12th

What is Football Frenzy?

“Football Frenzy week is a fundraiser put on by WOOD TV8. It’s a good drive for Feeding America, and basically, it just puts a whole bunch of greater Grand Rapids area schools up against one another to see who can raise the most non-perishable food items.”

What’s the purpose of it?

“It’s purpose is to collect nonperishable food items for Feeding America West Michigan.”

What are the different events?

“Throughout the week, we will be collecting cans; [on] Friday, there will be an assembly starting at 6 a.m., and then, we close our Football Frenzy week with the football game Friday night.”

What did it look like setting this week up?

“Student Council was mainly tasked with publicizing the can drive.”

Why should students participate and how?

“Students can do their part by bringing in as many nonperishable food goods (preferably canned food goods) as they can. Students should participate because they are making a positive impact on the community, but if that’s not enough, they should participate to be entered in a $250 raffle for anyone who brings in five or more non-perishable food items.”

What are you most excited about with Football Frenzy?

“I’m most excited to see how much food we are able to collect as a school.”

Name: Caroline Logan

Grade: 11th

What is Football Frenzy?

“Football Frenzy is something WOOD TV8 started, and it’s a competition between schools, including East Grand Rapids and Lowell, to collect non-perishable food items for Feeding America West Michigan. WOOD TV8 will air à piece on our school on Friday morning as part of their morning show.”

What’s the purpose of it? 

“The Football Frenzy’s main purpose is to collect as much non-perishable food for Feeding America West Michigan.”

What are the different events? 

“Daily, it’s not really an event, but Student Council and National Honors Society will be collecting the food during lunch. It is a class competition on top of the school competition. On Friday, at 6:00 a.m. there will be a big assembly before school with WOOD TV8 there, and the band will be playing, and it will be like most assemblies.”

What did it look like setting this week up? 

“We didn’t do much this week other than hang up flyers, but a couple of weeks ago, we had some interviews and clips with WOOD TV8 for them to show on Friday.”

Why should students participate and how? 

“It goes to a really good cause, Feeding America, and it’s a fun class-to-class and school-to-school competition. If you bring in at least five perishable goods, Monday through Thursday during lunch, you’ll be entered into a raffle (only our school is in the raffle) to win a $250 Visa gift card. You have to be at the assembly before school to receive it. The winning school, measured by the weight of food, will win a Football Frenzy WOOD TV8 banner for their gym.”

What are you most excited about with Football Frenzy?

“I’m just really excited because it highlights our football team, which is doing really well this year, our school, and an important cause—the fight against hunger.”

Name: Mrs. Patricia Richardson

Occupation: Teacher

What is Football Frenzy?

“It’s the tailgate frenzy done by WOOD TV. They pick schools in the area. Every year, they go to different schools, and every Friday, they go to a high school and connect with the community. They’ve done interviews with a Student of the Week that they pick and focus on, and they also focus on a community project—we did Family Promise. The other piece is the can drive that goes to Feeding America.”

What’s the purpose of it?

“I think [WOOD TV8’s] purpose is to give their viewers insight into what’s happening in the community, in terms of what’s happening in the schools. They do a positive focus on the school of the week that they do for the tailgate, so it gives viewers a way to see what different schools are doing.” 

What are the different events?

“There’s the can drive that goes on all week. Previously, WOOD TV8 came and did interviews with students around Family Promise and interviewed [senior] Grace [Hudkins] as the Forest Hills student spotlight. [On] Friday, there’s the tailgate, which is a pep rally in the morning that starts at 5:45 am. They do their show from the football field and students come, the band plays, and they talk to kids.”

What did it look like setting this week up?

“It was really a matter of getting students from the Student Council involved, and NHS students involved so that we have the manpower to take care of what we need to take care of.”

Why should students participate and how?

“The biggest reason is to help our local community because the food that is collected goes to Feeding America, and Feeding America distributes it to the local food pantries. So everything that gets brought in stays locally, and while a lot of our students might not have the need, we have people in our community that have a need, and everyone has five extra cans hanging around their house that they can bring in.”

What are you most excited about with Football Frenzy?

“I think highlighting the things that Forest Hills does a good job of like highlighting that we have students that care about the community and also highlighting what we have done with Family Promise. I would like to see a really good showing of canned goods brought in to show that our community cares. We have a lot of kids that do mission trips and community service, so this is a chance, as a school, to do a community service project.”