Wiscasset High School captured WGME’s Spirit Cup on March 7, besting seven other Maine high schools in the food drive and spirit contest. The school won by raising 58,662 pounds of food through collections of food and money, for Good Shepherd Food Bank.

Two hours after the Portland television station announced the win during a live, in-studio finale, a group of students and WHS staff member Deb Pooler arrived back at the school with the cup.

The van appeared in the driveway under Wiscasset police and fire escort, with sirens blaring and lights flashing. Students and staff cheered from the curb  and the steps. Some held banners reading “WHS” and “We Are Small but WE ARE MIGHTY.” The school’s art teacher, Shalimar Poulin, had just made the signs, in the school colors red and black.

“It was quite a thrill,” senior Logan Grover said about the welcome he and the rest of the contingent received. As the van pulled up, Grover had held the cup out the window, then when the vehicle stopped he got out quickly, ran along the crowd and up into it, climbing the steps and hoisting the cup overhead.

The school couldn’t have won without the contributions of local businesses and individuals, Grover told WGME’s Jeff Peterson on-air earlier that morning.

Peterson announced Wiscasset High as this season’s winner just before 7 a.m. Friday.

Word spread quickly in town. “It’s a great thing, for a small school to be able to do that, small but mighty,” Ames Supply’s co-owner Wayne Averill said about the win. The business was among many that helped build up the school’s tally. It made a donation for every like the business’ Facebook page received.

“We’re ecstatic,” Principal Deb Taylor said following the station’s announcement. The contest and the win gave the school a chance to shine as Wiscasset continues its work to create a school department outside Regional School Unit 12.

“At a time of uncertainty and transition, this little town has shown it can do some pretty amazing things,” Taylor said of the community’s support for the school’s efforts in the contest.

WGME did a good job keeping the winner a secret ahead of the announcement, Taylor said. “We didn’t know what to expect. But we were hopeful. We knew (WHS staff member) Deb Pooler had done an awesome job of organizing this ... and we knew we had the community’s support.”

Over eight weeks, the competing schools raised a combined total of 241,604 pounds of food, Peterson announced during the finale.

Cheverus took second place, with 56,258 pounds of food raised; third place went to Portland High School, with 54,185 pounds.

Wiscasset High had one of the smallest student populations in this season of the contest, Peterson said in a telephone interview. But its strong finish, including a final surge of donations that jumped it from third to first, was not completely surprising: The smaller schools tend to draw a lot of community support, he said.

Peterson cited WHS students’ persistence, even going out in pouring rain to seek donations, as a factor in the win.

The school’s success in the contest shows what can result from accepting a challenge, then coming up with a vision and a plan to make it happen, Wiscasset School Committee Chairman Glen Craig said. The town can do the same as it prepares for Wiscasset schools’ future, he said.

“We need to capitalize on that momentum.”