Instead of hurrying home after school on Wednesday, Nov. 18, students from Downey and Warren High gathered at Stay Gallery to cheer on their classmates participating in a pie eating contest.

The contest was arranged by Warren’s Stay Connected club with hopes of raising $700 to donate to the needy families in Downey just in time for Thanksgiving. Stay Connected used Stay Gallery for hosting purposes, but to make things more interesting, they decided to rekindle the Downey-Warren rivalry by reaching out to a few organizations from each school. The tag teams that participated had to finish an entire pumpkin pie with their hands behind their backs. The first team to finish three pies won that round. Best three out of four rounds would be named pie eating champions.

The first round featured tag teams made up of Downey’s versus Warren’s ASB. They were neck in neck, but sophomore Jonathon Jin finished his pumpkin pie first giving the win to Downey for the first round.

“Besides the glaring fact that I felt absolutely gorged, I felt an immense sense of satisfaction in representing Downey for such a charitable cause,” Jin said.

The second round included cheer, and as the crowd got rowdier, the pressure intensified. Downey won making the score 2-0. Varsity’s cheer senior Valerie Ortiz shared her thoughts on the event.

“It was nice to have my classmates support and chant for me for a change,” Ortiz said.

The third and fourth rounds included boys and girls cross country. Warren took the win for both of those rounds leaving the two schools tied. In order to break the tie, Downey’s Amigo’s club volunteered to go against Warren’s Key Club. The most intense round of all led to a Viking defeat.

Before Stay Connected could wrap up the event, Councilmen Mario Guerra got on stage and said that he noticed the crowd from his office across the street. Intrigued, he walked over to realize that it was a student run event with a purpose to help out their community.

“You guys were close, about $200 shy of your goal, and I’m going to pay that difference because I think what you guys are doing for your community is great,” Guerra said.

Guerra agreed to donate under the condition that a Stay Gallery director would receive a pie in the face. The event ended with Valentine Flores having a pie slammed to his face by Guerra.

Regardless of the competition, it was a gratifying afternoon for both Vikings and Bears to know that they took part in aiding the less fortunate families within their community for the Holiday season.