From Dawn Kujawa – Lexington 2 Schools Communications Director –

As a new member of the Junior Beta Club at Cayce Elementary, fourth-grader Mackenna Maddox was in search of a community service project.

The Lexington Two school was participating in a Carolina-Clemson food drive to benefit Harvest Hope, to see which team could collect the largest number of donations ahead of this weekend’s rivalry football game. Mackenna decided to collect canned goods for her favorite team, Clemson. Her parents let her post a video on their Facebook page to announce the donation drive.

Mackenna set a goal of collecting 250 cans of food, because “I wasn’t sure how many people would really donate.” 

In the end, a lot of people did — from family and friends here in town to an anonymous donor all the way in Pennsylvania. 

Total cans collected: 1,510.

“To be able to help those in need makes me really happy,” said Mackenna, who last year raised money to buy hats and gloves for the homeless.

Mackenna organized every aspect of her food drive. If people called with donations, she arranged to get them picked up. If people donated money, she went grocery shopping with her parents to buy food with it. She used her math skills to figure out sales and prices, to make sure she was getting the maximum amount of food for the money. And she posted videos regularly on Facebook to share progress reports and to thank donors.

Friday morning at Cayce Elementary, students attended a pep rally to find out which team, Carolina or Clemson, had collected the most cans. Clemson came out on top, thanks in large part to the donated cans from Mackenna, which arrived in a caravan of three cars for dropoff at the school.

In the end, all the students were winners, collecting nearly 2,300 cans for donation to Harvest Hope Food Bank to help those in need. And, regardless of which football team you pull for, it’s an achievement all fans can cheer about.