The Alternative Press

When Tim Lonergan of Chatham High School and Brendan Lewis of Mendham High School wanted to help the hungry before school closed for the summer, they decided to set up and run their food drives on YouGiveGoods.com.   When they found out they could set up a contest between their two drives – it was game on!  Pitting the two rival high schools to see who could help out the most was a no brainer.  The two high school students set their drives up to support the Salvation Army – Mendham to support the Dover Corp and Chatham to support the Morristown Corps.  The drives began on 6/1/12 and will run until 6/21/12 – when summer begins. 

Each of the drives started with an ambitious goal – to raise $2500 during a time when everyone at school is busy – with exams, making summer plans, graduations, etc.  “I’ve never organized a food drive before,” said Brendan Lewis, “but I thought that by making it easier for people to help out by using the YouGiveGoods website, that the school community could make it happen.”  According to Tim Lonergan “This is the first food drive I’ve run, too.  Raising $2500 worth of food seemed like a stretch goal, but something worth going for.”

Today marks the midway point for the drives – 10 days down, 10 to go.  How is it going?  The answer is WOW!  The two drives began with a combined goal to raise $5000 worth of food.  At the half way mark – the drives have raised over $6000!  Chatham High School is in “first” place with around $3500 worth of food raised, Mendham High School has raised just over $2500.   Tim Lonergan has already raised his drive’s goal a couple of times, his new goal is $4000 worth of food.  Brendan Lewis is planning to raise his goal, too. “Mendham is a better second half team – we’re looking at making a strong comeback.”   Both boys have achieved another goal, too.  “A lot of people have contributed to our drives and we’ve had some nice things written about what we are doing.  I think it’s helping to create more awareness that there are hungry people here in Morris County.”  Lonergan remarked. 

To check out the Contest Scoreboard – go to www.YouGiveGoods.com/ChathamHSMendhamHSFoodDriveContest