Mission Drive Day 2025

Jesuit High School's Mission Drive culminated Friday (April 25) with the annual spring campus festival that is Mission Drive Day. When the fundraising efforts were all added up, the students had raised more than $15,000!

The money all goes toward the Mission Drive 2025 beneficiary, the Jesuit Prison Education Network (JPEN), which is quickly making an extraordinary impact. Led by Fr. Thomas Curran, S.J., 11 Jesuit universities, including Boston College, Saint Louis, Rockhurst, and Marquette, all are participating in teaching college courses to the incarcerated in prisons, with great results for the individuals and society.

Much of the $15,000+ raised by the Mission Drive – about $5,400 – was raised Friday via small fees associated with a cornucopia of Mission Drive Day activities, food sales, and various competitions, such as soccer, pickleball, trivia, chess, bocce, spikeball, basketball, and poker.

The Mission Drive Day funds were added to the nearly $10,000 raised in four weeks of Mission Drive homeroom collections, to achieve the $15,000+ total. The homeroom of teachers Dan Noyes and Andy Wood '92 was the classroom generosity champion ($1,187), just barely outraising the homeroom of runners-up Paula Collazo and Madeline LaFrenier ($1,088).

The Environmental Club (moderator Vindri Gajadhar) was the Mission Drive Day fundraising champion, as it has been for several years running, with food and drink sales totaling $945. The African American Club-operated Basketball Tournament generated $750 (moderator Audrey Merck). And teacher Greg Malafronte '05's Ice Bucket Challenge raised $525.

In March, interim president/principal Mike Scicchitano and Wood, Jesuit's director of community service, launched the Mission Drive at Convocation. Each year, the Mission Drive selects a new beneficiary, and Scicchitano spoke to the student body about the great results the Jesuit Prison Education Network has witnessed in a short time. Click the hyperlinks for a video and for more information about JPEN.

Mission Drive Day began Friday, as it always does, with a phenomenal music concert for the student body inside the Tiger Palace. It featured the choir, band, and orchestra performing selections such as "Yesterday" by the Beatles, "For the Longest Time" by Billy Joel, and the theme from the movie "Star Wars." They closed the show with some guitar rock featuring Jake Garcia '25 and drummer Evan Yockey '25 performing "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon. Many of the musical selections from the Mission Drive Day Concert, and many more outstanding songs, will be showcased at the Spring Music Concert on Thursday (May 1) at 7:00pm in the Shembekar Auditorium. Admission is free.

The various competitions across campus are a key element of Mission Drive Day. Among the winners of the games and events were Trivia Tournament student champions Daniel Dewey '25, Daniel Odio '25, Jacob Judson '25, and Noah Choe '25, who enjoyed short-lived glory as they were then soundly defeated 91-59 by the faculty team consisting of David Mammola, Ian Edwards '06, Ashley Fields, John Davis, and Matthew Simms.

In the Spikeball Tournament, student council president Colin Shembekar '25 and vice president Jack Morton '25 were unable to defend their title as Nolan Wall '25 and Brendan O'Connor '25 earned the championship. The Ping-Pong Tournament winner was Nick Hadley '25, who downed Nick Deakin '25 in the final. Ryan Burriesci '25 and Garrett Boyes '25 won the Super-Smash Bros. Tournament. The prestigious Beil-Menendez Trophy for the Bocce Tournament was won by the faculty team of Edwards and Noyes, and the Pickleball Tournament champions were brothers Luke Stanton '28 and Will Stanton '25, who defeated Jacob BriseBois '27 and Preston Arndt '25 in the final.

The Texas Hold ’Em Poker Tournament champion was Peter McCauley '27, and the winning Mission Madness Basketball Tournament team was comprised of Hayes Grabill '28, Dylan Flach '26, Xavier Nocco '25, Lucca Norton '25, and Xander Aya-ay '26. The faculty basketball team led by the ubiquitous Noyes along with Joseph Madigan, Jonathan Barlaan '06, and Dameon Clay, with vocal support from the student body inside the Tiger Palace, closed the day with an overtime victory over a team of seniors led by Ryan McNeil '25 and Morty Hanlon '25, despite Hanlon leading all players in points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks. 

The Mission Drive dates back to the 1930s at Jesuit, though Mission Drive Day was established early in the 21st century. One of the school's great annual traditions, the Mission Drive has been a means for Jesuit students across generations to help thousands of people in need. In recent years that has meant reaching children in need in locales such as Colombia, Nicaragua, El Paso, Texas, and Belle Glade, Fla.

View photos below, and for a very large gallery of photos from Mission Drive Day, go to the Facebook page Jesuit High School of Tampa.