March Madness

“Amazing!” That’s how Caitlin Quinn, a fourth grade teacher, felt after her homeroom won the eighth annual March Madness food drive at Patrick M. Villano School.

The March Madness food drive is run by the Villano Student Congress and advisors Colleen Malzahn and Kim Biggs. Biggs, who has been running March Madness for four years now, says “it has gotten better and better every year.”

This year, the food drive ran from Monday, March 6, until Friday, March 24. Donations benefit the Emerson Bible Church, which works directly with families in need in our community and surrounding towns. In total, Villano School collected 1,629 items. Quinn’s class collected 239 canned items.

Villano’s March Madness food drive is conducted in a March Madness style bracket.

“I also loved the March Madness bracket concept because I look forward to watching the March Madness tournament every year with my friends and family,” Quinn voiced.

“My favorite part of the day is when we reveal the final total and winning homeroom. The excitement that is generated by the reveal video and all of the students excited and cheering really makes all of the work around this event worth it,” Biggs said.

In the past, the reveal video was made by a teacher. Principal Jessica Espinoza said that this was the first year that two students made the video. Those two students were Maeve Gagliardo and Joshua Varghese.

“We all loved the video that was played at the O-Show, especially the suspense of it all to see who was the big winner. We had no idea we were going to win because we didn’t know if the 6th graders had a lot of donations since they are upstairs and the 4th grade only goes up there for music once a week,” explained Quinn.

Quinn’s class also enjoyed the reveal video that was played to the entire school during the monthly “O” Show.

“This year we collected more items than ever. We are so proud of the generosity of our school community!” Biggs added.