Pleasant Valley students deliver more than 4,000 cans of tuna to pantry

Things were really bustling at the Eldred Township Community Center on Friday afternoon. The place is always abuzz with activity the day before the West End Food Pantry opens its doors biweekly. But something was different on this Friday.

The parking lot was full as a line of cars pulled up to the doors of the old Eldred Elementary School. The cars held six Pleasant Valley High School seniors, Principal Matt Triolo, Assistant Principal Dave Sodl and Business Department Head Melissa Ruschak.

The vehicles also contained more than 4,000 cans of tuna fish.

“Every year seniors can take an elective called ‘career apprenticeship,’ ” Ruschak said. “The students get a teacher to mentor them and they are required to do a project. This year it was about the best ways to collect tuna for the West End Food Pantry.”

Ruschak said the students seek out different ways to successfully accomplish their goals, and in doing so get as many people involved in making the goal a reality.

“By doing this the students learn about giving back to their community no matter how successful you are in life. It sets them on a lifelong path of giving,” Ruschak said. “The lesson is to keep on giving.”

Ruschak’s words proved quite true when one morning they came to school to find that one alumnus had shipped 200 cans of tuna to the school via Amazon.

“One of the things we have learned doing this project is that a community can come together and make a difference,” senior River Marks said.

“We have learned that it is important to give anyway that you can,” senior Zeruiah Harris added.

Ruschak said the idea of the tuna came from pantry director Karena Thek.

“Each can will feed two people and it keeps well,” Ruschak said.

Thek took the students and their chaperones on a tour of the pantry and explained how everything worked.

“I knew that the kids wanted to have a pizza party to celebrate their accomplishments, so I offered to get them pizza,” Thek said. “I of course called Domino’s in Effort since they were so generous to us in the past. I offered to pay, but the manager there, Tyler, insisted on donating the 15 pizzas and they even delivered them. That Domino’s is incredible.”

Triolo was very impressed with the operation and happy to hear that the football team and the FBLA are already involved in helping out at the pantry regularly.

“I am sure that we have other students, some who might not be involved in sports or clubs that would be interested in volunteering,” he told Thek.

One student summed up her view of what the pantry does.

“You never know what someone else’s story is,” Autumn Bender said.