Chapel Hill High School members of Georgia Career Student Association (GCSA), along with other students, faculty and staff, collected more than 2,000 clothing items to help those in need during the holidays.

The students loaded the items Tuesday into a Warehouse of Hope truck which picked the items up at the school.

“GCSA has held the coat and clothing drive for the past eight years,” said Lydia Blakey, GCSA sponsor. “It’s become one of the standard things that GCSA does to give back to the community.”

Blakey said the drive is done with the help of Chick-fil-A on Highway 5 which donates biscuit breakfasts to the top three classes bringing in the most clothing items.

The winning three classes this year were: First place, Mary Beth Canning’s class, 636 items; second place, Carissa Green’s class, 575 items and third place, Kristen Caverly’s class, 383 items.

“The Chick-fil-A general manager delivers the breakfasts and talks to each winning class about their important contribution to the community,” Blakey said. “At Chapel Hill, we talk about ‘paying it forward.’ This is one of the largest service projects the club participates in and we’re honored to participate as a way of paying it forward to our community.”