WASHINGTON TWP. — In the quiet, pre-dawn dark of Sunday morning, the cafeteria at Orchard Valley Middle School was anything but.

Bustling, alive and illuminated, it was the hectic scene of the annual Helping Hands Super Bowl Hoagie Sale. Put on by the district middle schools’ Future Acts club and the high school’s Changing Our World project, the sale raises tens of thousands of dollars for children in the community facing serious and costly medical procedures.

Turning any corner in the cafeteria, while dodging trays of lettuce and heaps of cold cuts, hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers didn’t think twice about the job ahead of them. From students and teachers to parents and alumni, the township was out en masse to make more than 4,000 hoagies, starting before 5 a.m., hoping to beat last year’s mark of raising more than $30,000.

Whether they were responsible for layering the provolone or wrapping the finished product up tight, there was a focused dedication on every face in the Orchard Valley cafeteria. For the students, it’s a focus their teachers don’t often see on them at 7 a.m., let alone 7 a.m. on a Sunday.

“It’s great to see all these kids up at the break of dawn,” West Buonadonna said. His daughter, Taylor, was a recipient of the hoagie sale funds for two years before passing away from a rare form of bone cancer in November of 2010. He and his four daughters came out in full force in the early morning hours of Super Bowl Sunday to be help families they can relate to all too well.

“In dealing with the other [recipient] families, it reminds us of where we were, and we’re showing them that now, we’re here to support them,” Buonadonna said.

While Heather Finn, a teacher and Future Acts advisor at Orchard Valley, had a hand in getting the much-hyped event underway, as she stood in the back of the cafeteria taking the scene in, she almost couldn’t comprehend the immensity of morning. “It’s breathtaking. It brings tears to my eyes and chills to my arms,” she said about the turnout and dedication of the students. “It’s unbelievable.”

Jill Nawoyski, a junior at the high school, is one of those students.

For the past four years, she’s been coming out before dawn to volunteer for the hoagie sale. The early start doesn’t bother her one bit.

“It doesn’t matter how early you have to wake up. It’s just important to be here and help out,” she said.

This year, she was stationed in the Orchard Valley kitchen, writing heartfelt notes of thanks for each party tray of hoagies. At $50 each, the trays are a big help to the day’s overall sales.

“It’s something small, but it’s getting the word out and letting them know they’re supporting important,” Jill said.

High-schooler Matt D’Alessandro also didn’t mind that early wake-up call. In fact he said, he was ready and raring to go. “I was wide awake, yelling ‘Let’s make some hoagies!’” he said as he waited for more trays of lettuce and tomatoes. “It’s really good, even if you’re just helping one person.”

The hoagie sale will benefit five community members in all, and ninth-grader Abby Burr is one of them. When asked what it meant for her to see hundreds of volunteers—many she never met before—hard at work to help make her an her family’s lives better, she could barely hold back her tears.

“It means a lot, that a lot of people really do care and want to support us,” Abby said, standing alongside fellow recipient, seventh-grader Alexis Waters.

In years past, Alexis had heard of the hoagie sale but was never quite sure what it was about.

“I thought it was just for the Super Bowl,” Alexis said. Now that she’s seen the extent of the sale’s true meaning, however, she’s astounded.

“They’re here for us. They might not know us, but they’re here for us. It means a lot,” she said.

Tenth-grader Michaela Healy has been a recipient of the hoagie sale funds for the past five years. Suffering from hydrocephalus, where water builds up on her brain, Michaela has to fly to California constantly in order to receive the surgeries she needs to stay alive. The hoagie sale has been an immense help to her family, not just financially, but spiritually and emotionally as well. So, bright and early, her family was at the middle school, doing whatever they could to give back.

“I can’t put into words what that means to me. All I can do is say ‘Thank You,’” Michaela’s father, Michael Healy said. “It’s astounding. Every year I’m at a loss for words.”

Angela Donato, a 2007 graduate of Washington Township High School, was a student volunteer back in her days in the district. But coming out to volunteer again was especially crucial for her this year.

Last June, Donato’s sister, Toni Bolis, and her unborn son, RJ, were killed by a distracted driver in a car accident on Pitman-Downer Road. Since then, she said, the community outpouring of support has been overwhelming. Moments like the hoagie sale are her chance to return some of that love.

“I try to make sure to reach out and help families however I can,” Donato said. “It’s rewarding, and makes me feel good to see all the kids. Since June, the students have done so much for my sister that they didn’t even know. It’s my way of saying thanks.”

While the event is an overwhelming township tradition, students from Clearview Regional also got in on the giving this year for the second Super Bowl in a row.

“I love it. I’ve been making hoagies for awhile, now I can make them for a cause,” Clearview Senior Dane Kozlosky said, adding that the trick is to make sure the cheese and tomatoes are spread apart just right.

He and his Clearview classmates agreed that while their school doesn’t have as big of a showing as Washington Township, their ranks are steadily increasing each year.

“Its growing. It’ll expand more in the future at Clearview,” Dane said.

The sale itself is expanding so quickly that even the tiniest members of the township community want to lend a hand. A handful of toddlers and preschoolers, children and grandchildren of teachers in the school district, gathered around boxes of wrapped hoagies in the hallways of the high school—where the hoagies were distributed and picked up—to put the finishing touches on them. Luckily, it was a finishing touch they were familiar with —stickers.

“The idea is to start them early, to help them realize what it means to help other people,” Connie Baker, a guidance counselor at Orchard Valley said.

Her granddaughter, Eleanor Lawyer, was one of the handful of toddlers helping out. And since their trial run of getting them involved went so smoothly, they’re hoping they can bring even more tiny troops in to help next year, Baker said.

“It’s never to early to start.”

But while volunteers can never start too early, some residents coming by to pick up a last-minute hoagie were a bit too late. Even after eleventh-hour shipments were brought in to meet the high demand as the day went on, before the clock struck 2 p.m., every single hoagie was gone.

Read the rest here:
Washington Township hoagie sale a super venture