Students at Lehighton Elementary Center pitched in this week to raise donations toward the fifth annual Operation Give A Gobbler Turkey For Our Veterans event held Wednesday at Giant Food Store in Lehighton.

Fifth-grader Jerome Scarpati said he along with his fellow students were stoked for the competition.

“It’s definitely something good for the community,” Jerome said. “The winning class will get a pizza lunch with the chief (and police officers).”

Fellow fifth-grader Kaylee Atwood said she, too, had been looking forward to the competition.

“I like that we get to help out,” Kaylee said. “It’s fun that we’re doing a competition, and we get a workout.”

Lehighton Borough Police Chief Troy Abelovsky said he met with both building principals, primary grade Principal Aaron Sebelin, along with intermediate grade Principal Dr. Mark McGalla, to suggest the idea.

“The idea was they were going to get a point for every nonperishable item and a point for every dollar raised,” Abelovsky said. “We tried to find out which classroom in the Elementary Center could raise the most amount of points, and they would get a pizza party with the chief and police department.”

Abelovsky posted on the borough police department’s Facebook page that about 2,400 items and $1,428 alone were collected with their support.

“The idea was to be able to reach out to the families and get more families within the Lehighton community involved with the kids in the event,” he said. “It was important that we could get the kids involved in the community and that’s its good to help the veterans as well.”

Sebelin said the winning classroom collected nearly 400 items.

“We respect our veterans,” said Sebelin, who added that the students wanted to be sure our veterans have a great Thanksgiving holiday.