Wood View Fundraiser Nets More Than $3,000

Wood View Elementary School students, staff and parents raised more than $3,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society during their Pasta For Pennies Fundraiser.

Darla Smailis’ fifth graders raised the most money of any classroom, earning a pasta lunch from .

But instead of keeping their pasta party, they passed it to Renee Calabrese’s first graders in celebration of student Daniel Cavazos’ victory in his battle with leukemia.

Calabrese’s class then decided to share the lunch with the second place-finishing students in Oliver Lawrence’s class.

Through Olive Garden’s Pasta for Pennies national fundraising program, schools choose a three-week period when students fill collection jars in their classrooms with spare change. The top fundraising class at each participating school receives a pasta party from their local Olive Garden restaurant.