Brendan Riehl

Mrs. Wayland has won the competition against Mr. Chazen for the second year in a row by a margin of approximately 300-400 cans. She won last year by a similar amount, having collected more than 2,300 cans to Chazen’s 2,000, slightly more cans total than were collected this year. “Last year we got about 5,000 cans together,” Wayland said.

Modern US History teacher Anne Wayland defeated Modern US History teacher Jeff Chazen in a competition that shook the Social Studies department and had the school choosing sides. Their charitable competition, driven by student participation, resulted in a total recorded donation of 2,875 canned goods for the Circle of Concern.

Two school weeks were dedicated to a competitive campaign to gather canned goods, which began at the start of the month and ended the morning of Dec. 13. Chazen had the lead in accumulated canned goods for the first week of the competition, but by the second week’s end Wayland surpassed him by 373 cans.

“As you know, winning is in my blood, so it’s just kind of a natural thing for me,” Wayland said.

The race to get students to send in cans and money to Circle of Concern did not begin as a battle; originally it was a competition-free fundraiser run by Wayland. She encouraged students in her classes to donate to the Valley-Park-based food pantry and aid nearby families in need.

“I’ve been doing this for nine years. This fundraiser coincides with the Great Depression and New Deal unit. We decided to make this a competition so more students could be involved,” Wayland said.

The yearly event in which Wayland and Chazen face off is a relatively new tradition in the annals of Parkway West events.

“The competition started last year. She [Wayland] used to do it on her own. Last year we decided to make it a competition to spice things up a bit,” Chazen said.

Circle of Concern now has non-perishable goods, personal care items, and toys for this winter season as a result of the struggle to out-donate the other team.