Fayetteville — Students at Fayetteville Elementary are in the spirit of giving — and they have been working hard to break their goal of collecting 5,000 food items to benefit the Salvation Army of the Syracuse Area and the F-M Community Outreach Food Pantry by Dec. 18.

“We want kids to learn at an early age the importance of giving back to others. And what better place than at an elementary level to learn this and the responsibility that goes along with giving to others?” said Robert Baker, counselor at Fayetteville-Manlius schools and organizer of the annual event.

Each school day until Dec. 18, fourth graders will go from classroom to classroom with a flatbed push cart to count and collect donated food items to put toward each classroom’s total. Baker said that each third and fourth grade class that collects more than 1,000 cans will be treated to a pizza party for their efforts, and each first and second grade class that collects more than 500 food items will also have a pizza party.

The ultimate goal, Baker said, is to surpass the record of cans collected by the school in one food drive, which is about 5,000 cans. If this goal is reached, Baker said the whole school will be treated to a surprise that will be determined soon. In past years, the school-wide prize has included a wide variety of things, one of the most memorable being when Baker dressed in swimming gear and sang “Baby It’s Cold Outside” on the school’s roof. So far, the school is about halfway to its goal.

The collected food items will go toward the F-M Community Outreach food pantry as well as toward the Salvation Army’s annual Distribution Day at the OnCenter in Syracuse, which provides more than 2,000 local families with holiday gifts and food.

continued — “I think it’s important to give to people who don’t have a lot,” said fourth-grader Catalina Woldridge.

“There are people who don’t have food or shelter who can use this,” added Allen Williams, fourth-grade.

The annual food drive is part of the school’s character education program and has been occurring for at least 25 years. Baker said he believes it is a good way for youths to learn the value of giving back to their communities in any way they can. In the past, students and staff at Fayetteville Elementary collected so many cans that the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing, which collects the donations on behalf of the Salvation Army, had to send two large trucks to pick up their donations.

“Those that have much have a responsibility to give to those who are in need. We live in a great community and I’ve been here long enough that I’ve seen older brothers and sisters of these kids — and even some parents — who have gone through here and collected,” Baker said.

Collection bins have been set up in the foyer of Fayetteville Elementary and at Wellwood Middle School and Fayetteville-Manlius High School so that Fayetteville Elementary alumni attending those schools can donate to the elementary school’s collection.

Members of the public are also able to help surpass the goal of 5,000 by going to the Fayetteville Elementary front door and letting the office staff know you are there to drop off donations.

For more information, call 692-1600.