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EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville High School senior William Wojcieszak was awarded the Excellence in Edwardsville Award at last night’s City Council meeting for his generous donation of more than one ton of food to a local food drive.
Cathy Hensley, communications coordinator for the City of Edwardsville, said Wojcieszak is “driven to succeed” and driven to help those in his community.
“If you want to have a successful food drive, you need to have someone on board who is driven to succeed,” Hensley said. “Fortunately for the organizers and recipients of multiple food drives in Edwardsville over the course of the past couple of years, there's an incredibly driven, compassionate, and resourceful Edwardsville High School student who has made it his mission to stock the shelves of area food pantries and subsequently, the home pantries of those in need.”
Last month, she said Wojcieszak donated 2,280 pounds of food for the Tackle Hunger Food Drive, which saw EHS and O’Fallon Township High School compete to help those in need. EHS donated 2,970 pounds of food, and the two schools combined donated 3,679 pounds - meaning Wojcieszak alone contributed nearly 62% of all the food collected.
As impressive as his stats were this year, Hensley noted this isn’t the first time he’s made a major contribution to this food drive - Wojcieszak donated about 1,000 pounds for last year’s food drive and donated about 1,500 pounds the year before that.
“There’s no magic formula to how he accomplishes this - it’s pure effort,” Hensley said. “He puts in the legwork, delivering flyers and bags to multiple subdivisions and returning to collect the donations. He seeks out donations from area businesses, and he also buys food with his own money to contribute.
Operation Food Search, the organization which receives and distributes the Tackle Hunger Food Drive donations, said Wojcieszak’s donations alone are “enough to provide quality nutrition to more than 550 people for a day.” Their President and CEO, Kristen Wild, said the following about Wojcieszak:
“We are truly grateful to William for his amazing work,” Wild said. “Our work to heal hunger depends on many helping hands, and Will’s efforts not only ensure that children and families get the food they need, his example shows others that everyone can be a part of the solution and inspire great things.”
Mayor Art Risavy said he and the city’s aldermen were proud of Wojcieszak and his accomplishments as he presented him with the Excellence in Edwardsville Award.
“We’re very proud of you and everything that you’ve done,” Mayor Art Risavy said. “We’re excited and just proud to have young adults like you in our community, so thank you.”
A video of Wojcieszak being recognized and receiving the award at the meeting is available at the top of this story or on the City of Edwardsville Facebook page.
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