The final weigh-in for Crest Hill Elementary's canned food drive was a mad house Friday morning, as students lugged in grocery sacks and cardboard boxes stuffed with donations for the Holy Cross Center.

Some students carried in several 5-pound bags of potatoes, nearly dragging the heavy plastic sacks on the ground. Others cradled frozen turkeys or backpacks filled with cans.

"The kids found out yesterday that Smith's had potatoes for 99 cents," said principal Jim Stark, adding the school's annual food drive usually brings in five or 10 boxes of food. "We're far, far beyond that. We've knocked the socks off that."

Librarian Bonnie White modeled this year's food drive after a similar effort at Oregon Trail Elementary. Students brought in canned food every day for a week, which was then weighed and tallied by class.

The classes with the highest weight of cans and food earned pizza and root beer float parties on Monday. As the weigh-in wound down on Friday, volunteers began tallying the final weights.

"Oh my gosh," one volunteer gasped, when she calculated one class brought in more than 500 pounds of food.

The final results were noteworthy - Lynne Murray and Meghan Bauers' classes brought a combined 1,122 pounds of food, roughly a third of the school's total of 3,050.

On Monday, White said students far surpassed her goal of bringing in 700 pounds of food. It took two vans to move the food to the Holy Cross Center.

"It got pretty vicious the last day," White said. "They were hauling in as much as they could. The Holy Cross people couldn't believe it."

Students were excited for their pizza party, but giving to the less fortunate was the most important part of the drive, they said.

"We helped out people that didn't have food for Thanksgiving," said Dalton Irvine, a student in Bauers' class. "They're probably out there really, really hungry. They'll get to have a great big meal."

Reach education reporter Jasa Santos at (307) 266-0593 or at Jasa.Santos@trib.com. Read her blog at my.trib.com/jasasantos.