CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. -- A high school principal in Lackawanna County made a wager with his students if they were able to collect 10,000 food items for the needy before Thanksgiving.
The students at Abington Heights High School were more than happy to see their principal pay up.
Abington Heights students worked out a few months worth of frustration Wednesday as they threw whipped cream pies in the faces of 30 teachers. It was a reward ahead of Thanksgiving break.
The student body was successful in its goal of collecting 10,000 food items for the nearby Dalton Food Pantry. Volunteers told Newswatch 16 it will keep the pantry full for a few months.
"It's almost what we need to get through for several months because we have 70 families that come on a regular basis. So it seems like a lot of food, 10,000 cans, but it goes really fast," said Food Pantry volunteer Nancy Thompson.
The Abington Heights administration knew that such a lofty goal would require a big wager. The students say they didn't think they would be able to pull it off.
"Honestly, we didn't. Going into the last day of the drive we were right around 5,000, so we knew we were going to be able to have the pieing. We weren't sure about the football game, but then we really pulled through as a school on the last day and brought in those remaining 5,000 cans," said senior Ryan Siebecker.
As if pieing your teacher wasn't incentive enough, the high school principal sacrificed something, too.
Principal Andy Snyder promised students, that if they met the goal, they could shave his head. Snyder looked nervous as students took turns with clippers out on the high school's practice football field.
"That really set the tone and that made a lot of people want to donate even more than they usually do, so it was very beneficial to the Dalton Food Pantry," added senior Connor Thorpe.